Kathryn Moore and Ting-Yu Cha awarded Dietrich and Shrake-Culler scholarships

In a hybrid ceremony Tuesday, held in person and on Zoom, Kathryn Moore received the David L. Dietrich Honorary Scholarship and Ting-Yu Cha received the Shrake-Culler Scholarship. After announcement of their awards, Moore and Cha each briefly presented their work.

Moore’s advisers, University Distinguished Professor Sonia Kreidenweis and Senior Research Scientist Paul DeMott, nominated her for the Dietrich Scholarship based on her academic achievement and her skills as an aerosol scientist. Moore works at the intersection of air quality and climate science. During her M.S. studies, she participated in one of the most comprehensive sets of aerosol measurements ever collected over the Southern Ocean, sailing on a ship from Tasmania to the edge of Antarctica. She was responsible for the quality control of all the aerosol measurements on that voyage. Moore has participated in a wide variety of other studies as well.

“There is virtually no project that our group has done in the last three or four years that she hasn’t assisted in one manner or another, and that’s reflected in about 18 co-authored publications already at this stage of her graduate studies,” DeMott said in presenting the award.

The Dietrich Scholarship recognizes a CSU student who has demonstrated outstanding ability in air quality research and education. Fort Collins-based Air Resource Specialists Inc. funds the Dietrich Scholarship each year. It is given in honor of retired ARS President David Dietrich.

Cha was nominated by her adviser, Professor Michael Bell, based on her strong work ethic and enthusiasm for higher education. Her primary research is on radar and tropical meteorology. One of Cha’s papers was selected by the American Geophysical Union as an Editors’ Highlight, a designation given to fewer than 2 percent of AGU journal articles. It also won third place in the Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences competition.

“She’s one of the hardest working students I’ve known,” Bell said. “In evidence of her enthusiasm for higher education, she took a high-performance computing class on main campus in C++. She was the only female student in the class, the only atmospheric science student, and she got an A. I think she might have gotten the highest grade in the class.”

Bell noted that Cha was instrumental in the PRECIP campaign. “She’s one of the top students I’ve worked with over the years,” he said.

The Shrake-Culler Scholarship is given annually to a senior Ph.D. student. The student must have passed their preliminary exam, have a GPA of 3.5 or above, and demonstrate a strong work ethic and enthusiasm for higher education.