MSU researcher wins national award for eclipse project

BOZEMAN - A Montana State University researcher has won a national award honoring her leadership role in an unprecedented, hands-on student project that culminated during the 2017 total solar eclipse.

Angela Des Jardins, assistant research professor in the Department of Physics in MSU's College of Letters and Science, received the National Space Grant's Special Service Award at the organization's fall meeting on Sept. 17.

The award was created to recognize her major contribution to the Eclipse Ballooning Project, which she started in 2013.

"It's really meaningful to me that (this award) comes from the Space Grant community," she said.

"The award is for me but also Montana Space Grant Consortium," she said. "Everybody did a huge amount of extra work to make (the project) happen."

The Eclipse Ballooning Project involved teams of college and high school students from across the country. Fifty-five teams launched balloons equipped with an MSU-designed system for livestreaming aerial video of the eclipse, which had never been done before. The high-altitude balloons, which reached altitudes of 80,000 feet or more, also provided a platform for myriad other student-led science projects related to the eclipse. MSU hosted workshops in 2016 to distribute the ballooning equipment and train teams in its use.

The project was organized primarily through NASA's Space Grant program, which funds education, research and public engagement projects through consortia of colleges and universities in each state. The Eclipse Ballooning Project was almost certainly the largest collaboration that the Space Grant consortia have undertaken together.

"Angela is the one who brought a vision for this national effort," said Stephen Ruffin, the director of Georgia Space Grant Consortium, in an interview. He presented the award as the chair of the National Council of NASA Space Grant Directors.

"When students are engaged in a hands-on project like this, it sticks with them and provides motivation, confidence and skills that are lasting," he said.

National Space Grant typically only gives one annual award, called the Distinguished Service Award, to individuals whose life or career have had a lasting impact on science, engineering or education related to aeronautics or space. Past recipients of that award include Bill Nye "The Science Guy," Neil deGrasse Tyson and astronauts Sally Ride and John Glenn.

The Space Grant directors had recently discussed creating a new award to honor people within Space Grant. But for Des Jardins, getting the award "was totally a shock," she said.

"This isn't an annual award," Ruffin said. "It will only be given when something extraordinary has been done by someone within the Space Grant community."