Alum Wins Prestigious NSF Award

submitted by kundell@augsburg.edu

Nyssa Capman (2018) graduated with a double major in physics and mathematics. She is currently in her 2nd year of a PhD program at the UMN in Mechanical Engineering. She has been awarded the coveted NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which means she will be given $34,000 X 3 years for graduate school and will not pay tuition. According to the notification Nyssa received: ” [Her] selection as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow is a highly significant national accomplishment, and places [her] amongst an elite group of fellows who have gone on to distinguished careers in STEM.”

While at Augsburg, Nyssa conducted research as a Sundquist Scholar under the mentorship of Ben Stottrup and then moved into Mark Engebretsen’s lab, followed by a Big Data REU at the UMN Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering in her final summer. As an Augsburg student she presented a space physics research poster at the AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall meeting and at Zyzzogeton, and received an award for Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation for her REU poster at the Twin Cities Statistical Association’s fall meeting. Also while at Augsburg, she co-authored one paper with Mark Engebretson, and published her own first-author space physics paper after graduating.

Congratulations Nyssa!

This is the 3rd time Augsburg has had an alum win an NSF GRFP in graduate school.