Peter Marinescu and Samantha Wills awarded scholarships

Peter Marinescu was presented with the David L. Dietrich Honorary Scholarship, and Samantha Wills was given the Shrake-Culler Scholarship in a ceremony Nov. 30. Both recipients were unaware of their selection until the announcements by their advisors during the presentation.

The Dietrich Scholarship, funded each year by Fort Collins-based Air Resource Specialists, Inc., is given in honor of retired ARS President David Dietrich. The award goes to a CSU student who has demonstrated outstanding ability in air quality research and education. Marinescu has worked extensively on aerosol-based research, including characterizing aerosols at the ARM SGP site and simulating aerosol transport by mesoscale convective systems. He was nominated by his advisors, Professors Sue van den Heever and Sonia Kreidenweis.

“Sonia and I have both found Peter to be a wonderful student to work with. He is exceptionally enthusiastic, willing to help, highly teachable and always willing to push himself to higher heights. He works hard and takes very little for granted. He utilizes every opportunity available to him, including the recent participation in the PECAN and C3LOUD-Ex field campaigns, where he took on a management role in the latter,” van den Heever said in her comments during the presentation.

The Shrake-Culler Scholarship is awarded 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. Wills’ advisor, Professor David Thompson, nominated her for the award.

“Samantha is one of the hardest working students I have ever had. Most of my students work primarily with models or observations. Few have worked extensively with both. Samantha will graduate with a reputation as both a skilled observational analyst and numerical experimenter. Learning both skills at a deep level is not trivial at the Ph.D. level. That Samantha has done so is testament to both her talent and ambition,” Thompson wrote in his nomination letter.

“Everyone who knows Samantha knows how enthusiastic she is about her work,” he added during the ceremony.

Joe Adlhoch, left, and Jessica Ward, right, from Air Resource Specialists, were on hand for presentation of the Dietrich Scholarship to Peter Marinescu, center, on Nov. 30. The scholarship is given in honor of retired ARS President David Dietrich.