Elise Belanger and Michael Mrsan named 2022 Astronaut Scholars
The Astronaut Scholarship is considered one of the premier scholarships for STEM majors intending a career in research
Elise Belanger and Michael Mrsan named 2022 Astronaut Scholars
Miami University seniors Elise Belanger, a Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Physics double major, and Michael Mrsan, a Physics major and Premedical Studies co-major, have been named Astronaut Scholars by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). They are two of 68 students from 45 universities to receive the scholarship for the 2022-2023 academic year.
The Astronaut Scholarship is among the most significant merit-based monetary scholarships awarded to undergraduate STEM juniors and seniors who intend to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their final degree.
Astronaut Scholars are among the best and brightest minds in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) who show initiative, creativity and excellence in their chosen field, according to the ASF.
The Astronaut Scholarship is considered one of the premier scholarships available to undergraduate STEM majors intending a career in research, according to Paul Urayama, chair and professor of Physics and Miami’s ASF liaison.
Belanger, from Mason, is a member of the College of Engineering and Computing’s Lockheed Martin Institute. She has worked with faculty mentor Jinjuan She, assistant professor of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, since fall 2020 after serving as an undergraduate teaching assistant in She’s Design and Modeling course.
As part of She’s Human-Centered Design Research Lab, Belanger’s research focuses on ways to include end-users in early stage functional analysis and the design process.
During the COVID-19 pandemic closure of campus and the pivot to remote classes in spring of 2020, she worked on a study with Jinjuan She about how design collaboration teams work remotely. Belanger presented their results, “Challenges and strategies in a remote design collaboration during a pandemic,” at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Forum.
This summer she participated in Miami’s London Design Interactive Workshop, working with an interdisciplinary team to help design a device for physical therapy patients. There, Belanger was able to "put the techniques learned through Dr. She’s Human-Centered Design lab into practice.”
Belanger is a tutor at the Rinella Learning Center and involved with the Miami chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and Theta Tau, a professional fraternity for engineers. She is a member of Miami’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter, and is a part of EWB’s Rwanda Sanitation project, which focuses on improving the general waste system and latrines at a school. “It has been incredibly rewarding to make progress toward solving global issues using my engineering skills,” Belanger said.
Mrsan, from Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, has been conducting research with faculty mentor Karthik Vishwanath, associate professor of Physics, since spring 2020.
Vishwanath’s Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging Lab focuses on the development and use of optical methods for studying biological tissues.
Mrsan is a 2022 Undergraduate Summer Scholar and a College of Arts and Science Dean’s Scholar. He has been working on a research project with tissue spectroscopy that involves “optimizing an ultrasonic distance sensor to attach to a probe" with a goal of making quantitative measurements in biological tissue with the probe, he said. He presented his work in a poster session at the 2022 International Society for Photonics and Optics (SPIE) Photonics West meeting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mrsan “did lots of reading and learning theory (of optics),” which provided a good foundation before doing the hands-on work in the lab, he said.
Last summer he worked with Vishwanath and also completed an EMT training course. He is interested in the medical applications of noninvasive, light-based imaging. He was inspired by his favorite class at Miami — Physics in Medicine — to learn more about the physics of medicine/radiology and is interested in pursuing an MD-PhD program after graduation.
ASF: Founders for the Future
Miami University is one of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation's original university partners with the first student being awarded a scholarship in 1986. Currently there are 45 partner institutions nationally.
This year the ASF established its new Founders for the Future program thanks to a $1 million grant from Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future. The grant will provide seven additional Astronaut Scholarships — one additional scholar from each of seven schools — each year now through 2029.
Miami was selected as one of the Founders for the Future seven partner schools.
“Thanks to the generous grant from Club for the Future we have established the Founders for the Future program, enabling us to enrich and deepen our commitment to fueling the newest generation of scientific and technological game changers,” said Caroline Schumacher, president and CEO of ASF.
