Posted: 10/13/2009

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation awarded an OU student its prestigious $10,000 scholarship Friday at the National Weather Center. Zachary Flamig, meteorology senior, accepted the award at a luncheon in his honor.

Donna Shirley, former assistant dean in OU’s College of Engineering and retired manager of the Mars Exploration Program from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, presented Flamig with the award after speaking briefly on some recent meteorological findings on other planets.

Only 17 students were selected from the nationwide competition to receive this scholarship, the largest monetary award given to science and engineering students based solely on merit. This is the fifth consecutive year an OU student has been selected to receive the ASF award. According to the ASF Web site, the foundation has awarded $2.8 million in scholarships to college students since 1986.