Former astronaut Dan Brandenstein to present Astronaut Scholarship to Buckeye engineer, give public lecture Oct. 1
Dan Brandenstein, former NASA astronaut and chief of the Astronaut Office, will present Ohio State engineering student Jillian Yuricich with a $10,000 Astronaut Scholarship and deliver a guest lecture from 4:30-6:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 1, at The Ohio State University Airport.
A senior aerospace engineering major from Hilliard, Ohio, Yuricich is one of 38 students nationwide to be selected for the 2015-2016 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. She will be accepting this award for the second time after being the first Ohio State student to be selected for the prestigious scholarship in 2014-2015.
Brandenstein piloted one Space Shuttle mission and commanded three others, including the maiden flight of Endeavour.
His first space flight was in 1983 aboard Challenger on the first shuttle night launch and landing mission. Brandenstein was selected to command the maiden flight of Endeavour, which lifted off in 1992 with a major goal of retrieving, repairing and re-deploying an Intelsat communications satellite which had failed during its release months earlier from another shuttle.
Daniel Brandenstein was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on June 21, 2003. He currently serves as Chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s Board of Directors.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was created by the Mercury 7 astronauts and since its inception has awarded over $4 million in scholarships to more than 370 of the nation’s top scholars in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) undergraduate program. Candidates are nominated by their professors and exhibit leadership, imagination and exceptional performance in their field of study.
Hosted by the Ohio State chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Brandenstein’s guest lecture and the award presentation is free and open to the public. The events will be held in OSU Airport’s Hangar 7 at 2160 West Case Road in Columbus.
For more information, contact: Kayleigh E. Gordon, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Ohio State, at gordon.686@buckeyemail.osu.edu.
