Physics Department Chair Lands NASA Grant

Adding to a growing list of accomplishments, Dr. Brian Beecken, the chair of the Bethel physics department, has received a $17,655 grant to help NASA's Langley Research Center build an instrument that will change how climate and radiation sensing is done.

If NASA is successful in building this new device, it will eventually be placed on satellites and used to measure the earth's radiation and reflected solar radiation. Such measurements are crucial to the development of accurate global climate models and an informed discussion of the possibility of global warming.

"The NASA grant provides a wonderful opportunity to take students out of the classroom and put them into a research setting where they can apply the ideas explored in their classes to a real-world problem vitally important to humans," said physics department chair Dr. Brian Beecken. "A chance to work on a project like this one is likely to be a life-changing experience for a student and will form the capstone of his or her undergraduate education."

_{Photo taken from http://lasp.colorado.edu/strv/vanallen_strv.html}

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