Flagstaff Science and Research 2017

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Editor’s Notes T

wo years ago this year, the city of Flagstaff celebrated the opening of the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology’s business accelerator. This accelerator joined the already successful incubator to allow small businesses and inventors a chance to take advantage of the facility’s wet and dry labs, an area for light manufacturing, office space and a conference room. It helps retention of upstarts to lead to stronger economic growth.

While the business accelerator is not all about science and technology, this addition to NACET will only help galvanize the science and research up-and-coming businesses and give them a better chance of success. The accelerator cost $7.7 million to build, with a federal grant providing $4 million. The remainder came from a city bond for $2.6 million to be repaid by tenant leases, $1 million from the Arizona Commerce Authority and $100,000 from Northern Arizona University.

It’s proving to be money well spent as a way to improve the economy and retention of innovative businesses and technologies.

Along with the accelerator, the interest in NAU establishing a research park and connecting the important dots between education and the private sector is also an initiative on the horizon that could see Flagstaff’s sciences and innovations expand farther. And, it’s exciting to think that this is all built on the storied history of science in Flagstaff. It continues to be an robust part of our city and something that we take pride in celebrating.

Please take the time to get to know some of the great science, research and projects happening as shared here to get a taste of the remarkable investigations and innovations that originate from our community.

Seth Muller Special Sections Editor

Note: This special section is made possible through the generous underwriting support of the sponsors listed on the cover, who also contributed the editorial content for their respective enterprises. The space allotted to each of these enterprises is consistent with their sponsorship levels. The Cover Story and Special Feature are editorial stories written by the staff.

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Biotech BURST

By Emery Cowan

Growing Work in Medical Upstarts Big on the Scene in Flagstaff

S

itting atop McMillan Mesa above Flagstaff ’s downtown, the 15-year-old Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology is fostering the growth of several local biotech startups. Small clear medical balloons are the focus of one of those companies, Poba Medical. The company custom-designs nylon and polyurethane balloons for companies across the world. Some are used to guide therapies that target pre-cancer cells, others help deliver pharmaceuticals and others fracture plaque in blood vessels, said Daniel Kasprzyk, the company’s founder. A longtime Flagstaff resident, Kasprzyk previously worked at W.L. Gore and Associates and also created the medical device equipment company Machine Solutions Inc. After he sold that company in 2011, Kasprzyk turned his focus to another startup: Symple Surgical. The medical device company started up in Menlo Park, California, then was pushed to look elsewhere when rents skyrocketed. The decision was to set up shop in Flagstaff, where Kasprzyk was still living, so the company moved into NACET’s incubator, which provided a small, cost effective space where it could get established, he said.

Symple Surgical develops a technology that uses electromagnetic waves to target specific disease states or certain tissues, then eradicate targeted pre-cancer cells or hyperactive nerves, Kasprzyk said. The company uses the

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technology to attack early-stage esophageal cancer cells, he said. Not long into product development, however, the company ran into challenges finding reliable catheter and balloon suppliers that offered the type of lead times and prices that the startup needed.

So Kasprzyk decided his team would just do the job themselves, which is how Poba Medical was born. Now, with nine employees between them, the companies continue to operate out of NACET spaces. Symple Surgical received the Flinn Foundation Bioscience Award in 2016 and Poba Medical received the award in 2017.

While Flagstaff may be smaller in size, the presence of Northern Arizona University

and several other biotech companies here means there is a “huge talent pool” in Flagstaff that doesn’t exist in Phoenix or Tucson, Kasprzyk said.

Flagstaff has also been an ideal location for Burt Ensley and his company Protein Genomics, founded in 2002. While much of the company’s product testing and development work takes place at its lab at NACET, Ensley works out of his Sedona home, where he moved in 1999 from the East Coast.

“I had never seen Sedona, I was shocked,” Ensley said of his first visit to the area. “I was looking around and said ‘someone made a terrible mistake. Someone put a town in the middle of a national treasure. I wonder if there are any lots for sale?’”

The focus of Protein Genomics is on producing human elastin, an important component of skin that provides strength and elasticity, for uses in wound healing.

Through a lab in Munich, the company ferments genetically modified bacteria and yeast that grow the elastin inside of them, Ensley said. The elastin is then extracted using a detergent, purified and dried. The final product that gets shipped to Arizona looks a bit like cotton candy, Ensley said.

In Flagstaff, students from Northern Arizona University work with Protein Genomics’ Rob Kellar to spin the elastin into a thin fabric sheet using a 35,000-volt electrospinner. The final product looks like filter paper or toilet paper, but is so flexible that it can be stretched out to 150 percent of its length and snaps right back, Ensley said.

Dan Kasprzyk (left) and Bryce Igo of Poba Medical.

The possibilities to use the elastin for wound healing are many, though testing and trials to get federal approval will take years, he said. Somewhat similar to Protein Genomics, a collaboration between NAU and the private sector is the driver behind the four-year-old company Aneuvas Technologies Inc. The company focuses on optimizing a specific biomaterial to help heal a brain aneurysm, which is a bulge in the artery wall. Like a balloon, if the aneurysm continues to grow it can eventually burst causing a hemorrhagic stroke. The company works at a space in NACET as well as a laboratory at Northern Arizona University to test and optimize the biomaterial.

The company’s chief technology officer, Tim Becker also straddles the university and business worlds, as he holds a position as an associate professor at NAU and head of its Bioengineering Devices Lab as well.

Aneuvas’ medical device is inserted into the body not through surgery but via small catheters inserted into blood vessels in the leg that then feed into brain, Becker said. The company fills a medical balloon with a gellike soft material that stops the “balloon” of the bulging artery from growing and then allows vessel to regrow over the balloon neck, he said.

With improved diagnostics, doctors can detect aneurysms and Becker said his company’s technology can be a non-invasive preventive measure. “Instead of waiting until they get symptoms, (patients) have the option to have it fixed before it causes an issue,” he said.

Solving

Loretta Mayer

A BIG

Problem Sensetech Takes on Rodent Control with Its Innovative Efforts

By Emery Cowan

I

n an unassuming office park in east Flagstaff, a 13-year-old company is making major gains in changing the paradigm on pest management. The company is Senestech, started by former Northern Arizona University biologists Loretta Mayer and Cheryl Dyer, and its product is a safe, humane and environmentally friendly rodent contraceptive. SenesTech’s sweet liquid formula induces egg loss in female rats and impairs sperm development in males, reducing reproduction capacity in both genders to zero.

In August, the company received Environmental Protection Agency approval for its rat contraceptive drug, opening the door for it to put the product on the market.

Four months after that, in December, the company held its initial public offering, becoming the first publicly traded company headquartered in northern Arizona, said Mayer, who is SenesTech’s CEO. Now, SenesTech is moving forward with contracts with animal sanctuaries in New York and New Jersey, an animal research facility in Georgia and a university in North Carolina, Mayer said. SenesTech also is working with the New York City health department to use ContraPest in public housing units and subway garbage rooms, she said.

The garbage rooms of the city’s subway system also were the site of one of Senestech’s major trials. In a $1.1 million

experiment funded by the National Institutes of Health in 2013, SenesTech deployed its contraceptive formula in the rooms where rats feast on food leftovers and other garbage.

Even with other trash readily accessible, the rats “ate the bait like crazy,” said Ali Applin, SenesTech’s vice president of business development. Previous to that, SenesTech ran experiments to control rat or mice populations in Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Britain.The company’s trials have shown that use of the bait reduced rat population numbers by up to 40 percent, Mayer said.

The need for SenesTech’s formula is far-reaching, the company writes in federal filings. Rodents destroy crops through consumption and contamination, for example, with one report estimating that 20 percent of stored food was lost

to rodent activity in 2014. The creatures act as transmitters of disease and deadly pathogens and also cause significant damage to public infrastructure by burrowing under building foundations and gnawing on electrical wiring, computer equipment and insulation.

SenesTech’s formula has two active ingredients: a chemical compound used in manufacturing rubber tires, polyesters and plastics; and a plant-derived ingredient used in traditional Chinese medicine. The sweet, fatty formula is a special recipe made to be extra tasty to the rodents, while the liquid delivery makes it even more appealing because rats need to drink 10 percent of their body weight in water each day, Applin said.

Several other aspects about the formula and the way it’s delivered make it a much safer option than rodenticides or trapping. The dosage is specific to rats, so it won’t affect larger animals that may eat the rodents or to humans or animals that unknowingly or mistakenly ingest the bait. A 165-pound person would have to ingest 2 gallons of the product every day for 15 days to reach a dose that would cause infertility in rats, according to the company’s website.

Additionally, the half-life of the bait’s active ingredients is less than 15 minutes when it enters a rat’s blood stream and they also degrade rapidly when they come into contact with water or soil.

The company’s next move will be developing a similar formula for wild hogs and dogs, Mayer said. Over the next five years Mayer said the company also plans to expand its rodent products internationally to markets in Europe, Southeast Asia and South America.

SenesTech is Flagstaff born and raised.

The business started out as a major tenant of the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies’ business incubator and now does all of its manufacturing from its Flagstaff facility, Mayer said. It is up to 36 employees and Mayer said that number is likely to grow soon. In order to keep up with expected increases in demand, the company recently installed a second manufacturing line. Driven by current and future expansion, the company moved its research and development arm back to NACET’s business accelerator. Next, Mayer said she expects the company to expand into satellite offices on both coasts and probably in London.

“We’re just bursting at the seams right now,” she said.

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Associates’ charitable contributions account for an estimated $600,000 annually (including company-matched dollars)

The Elden View facility on Fourth Street was the first Gore plant established in Flagstaff

In the last 40 years, physicians have implanted more than 40 million life-enhancing Gore medical products

Associates volunteer 50,000 hours to non-profit organizations annually

Celebrating

A global materials science company dedicated to transforming industries and improving lives Established roots in Flagstaff in 1967 Flagstaff’s largest private employer Today, roughly 2,000 Associates in 11 facilities make up our thriving Medical Products Division headquartered in Flagstaff

To learn more about us, visit gore.com Products listed may not be available in all markets.

GORE® and designs are trademarks of W. L. Gore & Associates. © 2017 W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

AW0646EN1.AZ.DAILY.SUN.AD.10.25x9.789.indd 1

AW0646-EN1

MAY 2017

5/9/17 10:20 AM

Serving Up Synergy Flagstaff’s Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Has Big Growth By the Staff

T

he city of Flagstaff continues to find itself a major contributor to the growth of the business, science and technology aspects of the region. One driving force of that is NACET—or the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

Two years ago, it added its Business Accelerator, and it continues to expand its partners and offerings. We asked some questions of John Saltonstall, Business Retention and Expansion Manager with the city, to learn about the big changes.

We are approaching the two-year anniversary of the Business Accelerator’s opening. Can you share some milestones and news of the accelerator during the past two years? What have been some ways the accelerator has contributed to the science and technology sector specifically?

John Saltonstall: NACET is filling up and has generated a great deal of energy. A few milestones were the change in leadership as Scott Hathcock took over and brought a new vision which revitalized the organization and led to the energy and occupancy we are seeing today. The approval of incentives by City Council in exchange for outreach also has provided support. The space is now 57 percent occupied which is ahead of the benchmarks NACET is required to meet as a part of their agreement with the City of Flagstaff.

The Accelerator has contributed to the science and technology sector by creating a space with facilities, and energy and business support where some of the great science performed in this community is being done. Poba medical recently received a Flinn Foundation Award, and Senestech, Flagstaff’s first publically traded company, is using the facility to continue their growth while they

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seek more permanent space. The Accelerator, combined with Northern Arizona University and our more established scientific entities, is generating a powerful energy and reputation as a community where science and technology are prospering.

NACET’s Accelerator is the finishing school for entrepreneurism in Arizona and it is an attraction for science and technology businesses which now see that Flagstaff is viable option to grow and scale their business. They have become a destination for entrepreneurs and innovation in Arizona— the benchmark for incubation best practices in the state across a multitude of business sectors. Their strength lies in the diversity of the clients and industries they serve.

Who are the current clients at the accelerator and what kind of work are they doing?

JS: Current clients are diverse and range from Hypo2, with their innovative approach to improving human performance in elite athletes, to Maka Digital, who define themselves as digital psychologists. There is Poba Medical and Senestech, who are innovating in bio-medical fields for human health and for solving pest problems both

internationally and here at home. There is Love You Foods, who are successfully creating healthy high-fat foods that are easy to carry to help travelers have more control over their diet and live a healthier lifestyle. There are these and other diverse companies developing and accelerating in the facility.

What is happening in the incubator portion of NACET? How do the incubator and accelerator differ? How are the two portions of the facility working together? What differences are you seeing in how the organization operates?

JS: The Incubator and Accelerator are part of the same pipeline, and both are managed

by NACET. Companies at the Incubator are generally earlier on in the business cycle and are in pre-revenue or early revenue stages. They develop their products and business plans with the assistance of NACET and the use of the facility. Hopefully, as they grow in sophistication and revenue, they graduate—like Love You Foods and POBA Medical did—into the Accelerator where they continue to benefit from the facility and the resources NACET provides and grow in revenue and capacity.

What do you consider some big news coming from the “graduates” of NACET? How is this this impacting the regional economy?

JS: Poba Medical recently won the prestigious Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Award and is ready to increase the footprint of their Accelerator clean room space which has clients around the

world and is manufacturing medical balloon prototypes. An incubator client, Protein Genomics was acquired earlier this year by a Phoenix based company, Axoltl, and rather than relocating the company to Phoenix Axelotl has broadened their footprint and come to Flagstaff and taken a lab space in the Accelerator.

Love You Foods, otherwise known as F-Bomb, has expanded from the Incubator to the Accelerator in order to increase production as their business is expanding rapidly.

War2In, the Accelerator’s very first tenant, recently infused a virtual reality component into their curriculum through support from NACET. This helped him to leapfrog over potential competition and bring in additional revenue streams as the company grows.

Senestech become a publically traded company and is continuing to expand as their product is sold in communities here in the United States and abroad. Their use of the Accelerator is supporting that expansion and growth here in Flagstaff where they are already an important part of the community.

What remain some challenges for the city in terms of retention of science and technology businesses and maintaining those companies in terms of infrastructure, transportation, building space availability and partnerships? What do you see as building blocks needed to better grow this sector regionally?

JS: As the sector advances there are great opportunities, but also challenges. New and growing companies may be relocated through external acquisition, or may never reach the capacity to scale due to economic forces in the marketplace. Providing the support and facilities of the Incubator and Accelerator through the City’s partnership with NACET helps develop companies here and gives them a better chance of getting through the difficult challenges early companies face. Additionally, higher costs to house staff and develop facilities can be a barrier to retention, however the energy developing around the sector, the synergies with Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff’s quality of life, and our outdoor amenities are all attractive to many in the workforce and help ground these new and exciting companies to the Flagstaff community.

ON THE

ROVE Northern Arizona University Takes on Work with the Mars Rover

By Emery Cowan

E

very day, scientists from across the world take turns working in teams to drive a carsized rover across the surface of Mars. Now, a new laboratory at Northern Arizona University allows Flagstaff scientists to have a turn. The university’s new Mars Rover Operations and Analysis Laboratory is headed by Christopher Edwards, an assistant professor of planetary science at NAU and a participating scientist on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover.

He and post-doctoral researcher Kristen Bennett pull three to five shifts per month helping develop science operations plans for the the Mini Cooper-sized rover that landed on Mars in August 2012. They work from the NAU lab, which Edwards described as “basically a cool computer lab.” Each morning, that day’s team reviews the latest data collected by the rover, then decide on activities to do that day before uplinking the plan to the rover, Bennett and Edwards said.

One of the lab’s flashiest tools is a pair of augmented reality goggles that put the

user on Mars right next to the rover. The goggles stitch together images from data collected by the rover, and allow scientists to virtually meet up on Mars, Edwards said.

Doing so helps the team get a sense of scale for an object they’re examining, he said.

In exchange for helping drive the rover, the NAU lab gets access to data from the rover and other orbiters. Students are able to use that data to study different aspects of the Martian system from terraces on the surface to the differential temperature changes that allow better understanding for how dust

moves around the surface of the planet and what that means for global dust storms, Edwards said.

The laboratory will include another component as well. Its other half will be used to design small infrared instruments to be used on satellites and other aerial platforms that will help scientists understand foreign bodies in space, Edwards said. Right now, there is a dearth of nice instruments that can be made to work on small platforms, he said. While NAU provided money to complete the lab’s renovation, NASA provides funding to pay part of the salaries for Edwards and Bennett.

NAU President Rita Cheng said that while the university has one of the larger undergraduate physics and astronomy programs in the United States, the goal with the Mars lab is to expand and deepen the research going on for masters and Ph. D.

Christopher Edwards, assistant professor of planetary science at Northern Arizona University

students. Edwards said he hopes the new lab helps attract new students and becomes something the department is able to “show off.” The lab’s designers clearly wanted the scientists’ work to be highly visible because an entire wall of the lab is glass that allows hallway passersby to get a glimpse of what’s going on inside.

David Trilling, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at NAU who is a selfprofessed fan of the lab, said he immediately took a liking to the glass wall. So often science happens tucked away in offices or behind closed doors, Trilling said. Now, everyone from the president of the university to a new freshman can walk by and see science in action, he said.

“I walk by that room every day and there’s someone driving a rover,” he said. “So there’s that cool factor.”

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Leadership and Recognition

The work we are doing at Northern Arizona University (NAU) is garnering national and international recognition. We are educating more

students, securing more external funding resources, and hiring some of the most sought-after faculty and staff in the country. We continue to lead the state in graduating educators with graduate degrees and remain the only university in Arizona accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NACATE).

• The Pathogen and Microbiome Institute has 8 U.S. patents, with more than 18 patents pending.

• The Department of Physics and Astronomy is 5th nationwide in the number of physics bachelor’s degrees awarded among master’s-granting programs.

• NAU ranked 4th in health professions and related programs baccalaureate degrees awarded to Native American students.

• College Factual named NAU among the top nursing colleges in the Southwest.

• BestColleges.com ranked NAU’s online hospitality management program among the top 10 in the country.

• NAU ranked 10th in the nation among forestry programs in an index measuring faculty scholarly output.

• NAU is 1 of only 40 universities to earn a gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS).

• Fourteen LEED-certified buildings or projects are on the NAU campus.

Transformative Research At NAU, we have always pushed the envelope of discovery. We are an international focal point for exploring the stars, yet we have our feet firmly planted within the abundant natural resources of the region.

Our research enterprise boasts strengths in astronomy, bioengineering and biosciences, microbiome and pathogens, ecology and environmental research, forestry, land management and climate sciences, and Native American health and wellness.

We continue to build on these areas while investing in and developing additional strategic strengths in emerging technologies and big data, health equity research, informatics, and cyber systems.

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Temuulen “Teki� Sankey Assistant Professor

transacted

$39.6 million $68.8 million

research and development EXPENDITURES

Million

Ultimately, NAU envisions a future in which its researchers increasingly collaborate across disciplines to produce applications that will have far-reaching implications for, and impact on, our world.

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INVENTION DISCLOSURES

$90 $80

issued

$369,000 PRIVATE INDUSTRY FUNDING

sponsored project AWARDS

Total

Research and Public Service Expenditures

U.S. PATENTS

$71.3 million

$82.3 million $46.8

$39.6

$70 $60

$55 million $26.2

$50

Research and Development Expenditures

$40 $30

$31.7

$28.8

$35.5 Expenditures Related to Service and Engagement Activities

$20 $10 0 FY: 2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2025

Discovery in Every Direction

We pursue discovery in every direction from our vantage point here on the Colorado Plateau.

In fact, “Discovery in Every Direction” is the theme underlying NAU’s overall commitment to growing our research capacity.

By investing in new programs, world-class faculty, and infrastructure, we will enable NAU’s research enterprise to drive innovation and technology transfer, contributing to the intellectual and economic development of the state and beyond.

Building Strong Partnerships to Spur Innovation NAU’s partnerships with regional and statewide organizations, including Northern Arizona Healthcare, North Country Healthcare, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the NARBHA Institute, and the City of Flagstaff continue to help NAU provide a strong foundation for future economic growth in the region and around the state.

The Pathogen and Microbiome Institute at NAU continues to strengthen relationships with its key funding agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health.

NAU’s partnership with Lowell Observatory on the Discovery Channel Telescope and in the development of new small telescopes (FRoST and ATLAS) will enhance the competitiveness of both institutions for funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation.

The university has expanded its collaborations to include Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET) and the Economic Collaborative of Northern Arizona (ECoNA), resulting in new jobs and income for the region.

One of NAU’s longest and most productive partnerships has been with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), which has resulted in shared ownership of 8 patents with 13 patents pending. Our continuing partnership with TGen will greatly expand research capacity, benefitting the Northern Arizona bioscience sector.

In 2016, NAU launched the new School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, creating opportunities for larger interdisciplinary research projects to succeed by incorporating informatics and computing as essential elements.

NAU also established the Center for Health Equity Research, which builds partnerships with minority, rural, and other underserved communities to identify and alleviate health disparities.

Michael Shafer Assistant Professor

Paul Flikkema Director and Professor

Learn more about us at nau.edu/Research

T

he Pathogen and Microbiome Institute at

TGen is an internationally known research center that has identified the causes of a number of infectious disease outbreaks. Led by Drs. Paul Keim and David Engelthaler, the PMI team of scientists and data analysts unravel the DNA code of microbes to solve medical mysteries on a daily basis.

Disease Detectives Celebrating 10 years of Groundbreaking Research with Life Saving Results 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of this exciting collaboration between TGen, an affiliate of City of Hope, and Northern Arizona University.

Together, we are seeking answers today for many of tomorrow’s important healthcare questions.

To learn more about PMI at TGen and the amazing stories unfolding right here in Flagstaff, visit tgen.org

VISIT US

www.tgennorth.org

LIKE US

facebook.com/helptgen

FOLLOW US

twitter.com/tgen

SUBSCRIBE

youtube.com/user/tgenvideo

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THE PATHOGEN AND MICROBIOME INSTITUTE

NAU

MEETS

NASA

After 30 Years of the NASA Space Grant, NAU Continues the Tradition | By Randy Wilson

B

ack before there was STEM on the Mountain Campus of NAU, there was NASA. The year was 1987 and the space agency was looking to get college students directly involved in their professors’ research before they graduated. Space exploration covered a lot of fields, the agency learned, so everything from physics and astronomy to biomedicine and astrogeology was fair game.

Arizona was one of the first states to participate in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, and Northern Arizona University came aboard the program in 1991 with five to eight student research interns a year. Today, it has 19 and an annual grant of $113,500.

Nationally, the Space Grant network has 830 affiliate members from academia, industry, government agencies, the military and nonprofit institutions. Thirty-two students of these are members and partners of

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Arizona’s Space Grant Consortium.

Formally called the Northern Arizona University/NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Research Scholarship, the program serves undergraduate students from NAU and occasionally from Coconino Community College. It is part of the larger statewide program known as the Arizona Space Grant Consortium, which includes NAU, UA, ASU and Embry Riddle in Prescott.

Nadine Barlow, Professor and Associate

Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is the Director of the NAU/ NASA Space Grant Program. Kathleen Stigmon is the Senior Program Coordinator.

The student research program has previously been called an internship, but it is now referred to as a scholarship—more than $24,000 of the annual grant to NAU goes directly to students.

Scholarships are awarded for one academic year. During that time, students engage in a hands-on, mentor-guided, research, research and development, science writing, science policy or science education experiences, rooted in NASA-related questions and issues.

Scholarships are designed to be challenging work experiences, especially

geared to provide undergraduates who are exploring career options the opportunity to broaden their educations with a rich, hands-on experience with the full process of inquiry and discovery. Scholarships can take place with a faculty mentor on campus or with a professional working for an affiliate in the government, industry (USGS and Lowell Observatory), or the nonprofit sectors on or off campus and occasionally from other small start-up companies (through NACET) that might not otherwise have the ability to hire an intern.

Students apply competitively for scholarships and NAU faculty and researchers, many with considerable national and international renown, apply competitively to be matched with students.

It is a firm commitment by both student and mentor that provides the opportunity to fully experience research, research and development, science writing, science policy, or science education. It is not a stipend or a work-study position involving a series of unrelated tasks.

The NAU program has served 344 students since its inception in 1991. Of those, 87 are working toward a higher STEM degree, 26 are with an aerospace contractor, 135 are working in STEM fields, 21 are in higher education academia, 14 are K-12 teachers, one is working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the remainder are in non-STEM fields or untracked.

Many of the students with Space Grant research on their resume say it has given them an edge when applying to graduate school, said Stigmon. Some former students are employed in Flagstaff after their research ends at places like Lowell Observatory and USGS, by their Space Grant mentor Student majors from the past two years: Physics/Astronomy, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Geology, Forestry, Environmental Engineering, Environment Science, Biology, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Some of the faculty members who have frequently mentored undergraduate students through Space Grant are Nancy Riggs (Geology), Catherine (Kitty) Gehrig (Biology), Randy Dillingham (Physics and

Astronomy), and John Tester (Mechanical Engineering). We also have some offcampus scientists who are frequent mentors, such as Lisa Prato at Lowell Observatory and Timothy Titus at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center.

A highlight of the program each year is the statewide symposium, at which Space Grant students give a 10-minute talk about their research project. Barlow said, “It is a great opportunity for the students to learn how to give a concise scientific talk as well as how to field questions about their research from the audience….Our students hold their own against their counterparts from the other schools and they always make us proud!”

Over the years, the number of students and the hours committed per

week have changed based on student schedules and interests, Barlow said. And recently, she has become more pro-active in getting the word out.

“Most students and many mentors hear “NASA” and immediately think the program is only for astronomy majors,” Barlow said. “But NASA has very broad interests, including climate change, STEM education, characterization of new materials, effects of weightlessness on the human body and life in extreme environments.”

So in recent years, Barlow has given a short presentation about the undergraduate research program in many classrooms. The result has been a much higher rate of applications from a wide range of majors across campus and a

broader range of research topics.

Barlow noted that not all of the benefits are focused on science and research. “I enjoy watching some of them mature dramatically over the course of the academic year—I have seen students come into the project who are very shy and unsure of themselves but who gain an incredible amount of self-confidence through their participation in the program.”

Others parlay their Space Grant research into graduate thesis projects and more. “Many students credit their Space Grant experience with helping them decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives,” Barlow said. “Overall, I find it to be a wonderful program for students, mentors, and those of us who run it.”

Past NASA Grant Students at NAU Paula Johns

Jillian Urban

Gary A. Miller

Paula Johns was a NASA Space Grant intern for the 20112012 academic year.

During that year she worked with Dr. Lisa Prato at Lowell Observatory studying the accretion disks around binary star systems as well as the stars which they surround. After the internship, she continued to work with Lisa on characterizing accretion disks around binary star systems to further understand solar system formation and evolution.

In the spring of 2013, Paula completed her B.S. in Physics and in Astronomy at Northern Arizona University. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Toledo. By utilizing archival data from Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope, her thesis primarily aims to classify x-ray binaries using a new and more accurate method to separate lowmass and high-mass x-ray binaries.

Jillian received her PhD in Biomedical/ Medical at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences in June of 2015. Her graduate research was primarily in understanding brain injury mechanisms.

Since earning her PhD, she has been a Research Assistant Professor at Wake Forest Baptist Health working with Joel Stitzel, PhD and Joseph Maldjian, MD of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University Center for Injury Biomechanics Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma, National Institutes of Health/ NINDS. Their focus is on the Kinematic Impact Data Set/iTAKL Study.

Dr. Gary A. Miller is a Research Physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. He received a merged B.S. degree in physics and astronomy from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1998. In 2001, he was awarded a M.S. degree in optics from The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. In 2001, he left Rochester to finish his doctoral research at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. In 2005, he completed his Ph.D. with The Institute of Optics, studying the fabrication, modeling, and photosensitivity mechanisms of post-exposed fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). At NRL, he develops fiber optic sensors for a variety of applications.

His active research areas include: FBG development and characterization, multicore fiber sensing, interferometric sensing, fiber laser fabrication and characterization, fiber laser sensors, structural health monitoring, and fiber optic sensor arrays.

Jillian is also working on Biomechanical Basis for Pediatric mTBI Due to Sports Related Concussions, with Stefan Duma, PhD, Richard Greenwald, PhD through the Bioengineering Research Partnership: Simbex, LLC, Virginia TechWake Forest University, Brown University National Institutes of Health/NINDS.

Recent Research Projects by National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program at NAU Vivianna Gamez Molina (2012-2013): Exchanging gases between algae and biogas in a life-support system. The project investigated the use of anaerobic digestion, which decomposes organic wastes into methane and carbon dioxide, and algae biomass, which uses carbon dioxide to produce oxygen which can be used to breathe or used with methane to create fuel. Vivianna found that the combination of the two techniques can make a viable life support system for future human exploration of the solar system.

Alexa Brooks (2013-2014): Effects of hyper-hydration on orthostatic tolerance in men and women.

Astronauts returning from space often become lightheaded upon standing. The ability to avoid lightheadedness when standing suddenly from a reclining position is called orthostatic tolerance.

This project conducted tests on male and female subjects using a tilt table to determine if hyper-hydration with Gatorade could improve orthostatic tolerance. The results found that men had better orthostatic tolerance than women but that hyper-hydration with Gatorade did not improve orthostatic intolerance in either gender.

Ian Avilez (2015-2016): Confirming disk presence and determining temperature for young multiple star system TWA 3. The project used data collected from the Discovery Channel Telescope to confirm the presence of a potentially planet-forming disk of dust and gas around two of the three stars in the TWA 3 star system. The strange thing is that the third star, which should have formed at the same time as the other two, does not have a disk of gas and dust around it.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH 2017

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CHOOSE FLAGSTAFF

THE CITY OF INNOVATION

The City of Flagstaff’s Economic Development Team along with our community partners are paving the way for innovation and continue to build successful partnerships to support and grow the Arizona’s Bio-Science Corridor for Flagstaff.

Partnership for Business Development The Flagstaff based company, SenesTech is now a publicly traded company!

Are you looking to lower the cost of doing business in Flagstaff?

Do you want to drive customers to your business?

Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce and ECoNA Are you looking for qualified workforce? kickstart the digital W.L.Gore & Associates celebrates 50 years in the City of Flagstaff

Machine Solutions, Inc. celebrates 15 years at Flagstaff Airport Business Park and completes fourth acquisition in five years.

sector via Tech Trak Symple Surgical Poba Medical moves development Meet with your local economic to connect you, moves intoprofessionals NACET from NACET into the City sponsored and EDA funded your idea, your passion, or your business to business resources such as:NAU creates their School of Business Accelerator

The City of Flagstaff partners • andConsumer based demographics with NAU the EDA to fund the business Development Process assistance incubator •known as NACET

Heidi Hansen Economic Vitality Director 928-213-2905

• • • •

Market analysis Recruitment assistance FOR ASSISTANCE: SiteMcIntire selection David Gail Jackson John Saltonstall Community Business Business Retention & Investment Director Attraction Manager Expansion Manager Workforce development 928-213-2907 928-213-2965 928-213-2966

Informatics, Computing, and Cyber-Systems and expands their bioinformatics program

The City of Flagstaff partners with the Arizona Commerce Authority and regional partners to expand T-Gen North, Mountain Heart, and Machine Solutions

Call the Economic Development Offices in the City of Flagstaff