NOAA CESSRST Awards First Lautenbacher Scholarship to UTEP Doctoral Student

Posted on May 18, 2017

New York, NY May 19, 2017– The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Science Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (CESSRST) at the City College of New York, NY, is pleased to announce the 2017 Vice Admiral Lautenbacher Public Service Scholarship Award. The incoming Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE) Ph.D. student Stephen Escarzaga from the University of Texas, El Paso, is the first to receive this prestigious award in its inaugural year.

“I hope to one day be using my expertise to facilitate sound and well informed decision making at NOAA, or other natural resource management agencies that are putting solid science at the forefront,” said Escarzaga.

Administered by NOAA CESSRST, the scholarship is named for longstanding NOAA supporter and past administrator retired Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher. This $45,000 scholarship supports STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students supported by NOAA CESSRST, and pursuing graduate level studies in NOAA mission sciences.

Funded by NOAA and led by the City College of New York, NOAA CESSRST, center brings together five other partner institutions across the nation. University of Texas, El Paso is one of them. NOAA CESSRST, recruits, trains, educates and graduates students; particularly from underrepresented and underserved minority groups to conduct robust hands‐on research and professional training in NOAA related science and remote sensing technologies.

Escarzaga is a UTEP alumnus who earned his bachelor’s degree in science. As part of his graduate studies, he will research satellite and ground‐based remote sensing techniques to measure coastline changes in the Arctic. To fulfill part of the scholarship’s service requirement, he will spend the summer conducting education and outreach in the predominantly Native American community of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, where his students will be introduced to basic applications of remote sensing first hand.

“I will give particular focus to subjects that arise in my personal research of observing arctic coastal and near shore dynamics,” said Escarzaga.

Environmental Science and Engineering is one of five interdisciplinary doctoral programs at UTEP, which create unique opportunities for research, innovation and public engagement. Craig Tweedie, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences and director of the Environmental Science and Engineering Program at UTEP, and Miguel Velez‐Reyes, Ph.D., George W. Edwards/El Paso Electric Distinguished Professor in Engineering and chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UTEP, mentored Escarzaga and supported his application for the Lautenbacher Award. 

For more information about UTEP’s graduate programs, visit: www.utep.edu/graduate.

“NOAA CESSRST aims to educate and train a diverse group of students, early career scientists, and engineers to become competent professionals in NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) related STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) sciences. For more information, visit http://www.cessrst.org.”

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Olga Joseph at (212) 650-8121 or email at cessrst@ccny.cuny.edu