Two Alfred University physics students, James Stewart and Katrina Klas will be working this summer at the Stull Observatory on campus. They will be assisting with research and the Summer Astronomy Institute for high school students.

Stewart’s participation will be through the Rosing Summer Fellow program, funded by a gift from Wayne Rosing, former vice president of engineering at Google (and the man who automated the largest telescope at the Observatory). For four years, the gift has been used to employ an Alfred University student to work with Observatory faculty, conduct astronomical research, and assist with outreach activities to the K-12 school community and the public at large.

This year, for the first time, the Stull Observatory has also received a grant from the NASA-funded Space Grant Consortium at Cornell University. This funding has been used to hire Klas to work alongside Stewart and professors in the Observatory. This allows more work production and gives a second student an opportunity to perform real research.

Stewart is a senior physics and mathematics major from Elmira. Klas is a senior physics major from Canandaigua.

Founded in 1836, Alfred University became the first coeducational institution in New York State and the second in the nation. About 2,000 full-time undergraduate and 400 graduate students work and live in 52 buildings on a scenic 232-acre hillside campus adjoining the village of Alfred.

The nonsectarian University is comprised of the privately endowed AACSB-accredited (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) College of Business and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as the NYS College of Ceramics (Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering and the School of Art and Design). Bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees are awarded.