Please join BSAC in congratulating Alexander Alvara of the Pister group on being awarded the 2021 Space Science Lab's Lin Fellowship.
Alexander is a doctoral student in the Berkeley mechanical engineering department working with Dr. Andrew J. Westphal and the Berkeley Autonomous Microsystems (BAM) Laboratory on the study of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets and is working on new low-cost methods for image and sample retrieval. He is designing, developing, and manufacturing new <20-gram solar sail spacecraft composed mostly of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components.
The Robert P. Lin Graduate Fellowship was established in 2012 with a gift from Prof. Lin’s wife, Lily Lin. It is used to support outstanding graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley who pursue research related to space sciences, including students studying Physics, Astronomy, or Engineering. Recipients of the fellowship demonstrate a high level of academic distinction. Preference is given to students who pursue research projects associated with Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL).