Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute Internship Opportunities
Summer 2009
The application period has ended. Awards will be announced by April 10, 2009.

The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) sits on an expansive 200-acre site in the gorgeous Smoky Mountains 30 miles southwest of Asheville, North Carolina. Near Brevard, the PARI site is surrounded by the Pisgah National Forest with easy access to hiking trails, canoeing/rafting streams and waterfalls. Once a satellite tracking station for NASA, the observatory at PARI now houses state-of-the-art equipment, including two huge 26 meter radio telescopes similar to those in the famous Very Large Array in New Mexico, and a smaller Internet accessible 4.6-m radio telescope. Students also have access to a 0.4-meter optical telescope with a professional CCD camera for imaging. PARI is the home of the national Astronomical Photographic Data Archive with hundreds of thousands of images of the sky frozen in time and containing yet undiscovered celestial events like gamma ray bursts, novae, comets, and meteors. PARI’s StarLab planetarium is a tool used for mapping the stars any time of day and regardless of most weather conditions. PARI’s campus and modern equipment make it an ideal location for aspiring scientists.

PARI Summer Internships are open to current 2008-09 undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in a STEM degree program at one of the NC Space Grant eleven member institutions. Selected student(s) will receive an award of $7,000 (undergraduate) or $8,000 (graduate), which includes travel/lodging expenses.

There are five internship project opportunities available during the summer of 2009:

Alternative Energy at PARI
This Space Grant Intern will work with the PARI staff to deploy solar arrays that will convert the Optical Ridge to solar power only. Under the supervision of Chief Information Office, Lamar Owen and Site Engineer, Ben Goldsmith, the student will be involved in all areas of converting this part of the site to solar power. The intern will also help develop instrumentation to provide on-line remote monitoring of the PARI solar array.

Astronomical Photographic Data Archive (APDA) at PARI
This Space Grant Intern will work with PARI Science Director, Dr. Michael Castelaz, and APDA Director, Thurburn Barker, to conduct research using images of the sky taken over 100 years and stored in APDA. The research includes a) deployment of a program called SCOPE which allows the general public to access the archive to assist with the classification of stars, and b) digitization of all sky images in search of transient events like gamma ray bursts, novae, and meteors. The APDA is a national archive located at PARI and dedicated to the task of collecting, restoring, preserving and storing photographic data. In additional to more than 100,000 photographic images, the APDA possesses two high precision glass scanners that were build for NASA to develop the Guide Star Catalog and Digitized Sky Survey that guide and direct the Hubble Space Telescope.

Information Technology at PARI
This Space Grant Intern will work directly with the PARI Chief Information Officer, Lamar Owen, to enhance the information technology capabilities at PARI. Work will include hands-on implementation of IT strategies in support of PARI’s scientific and educational programs. The specific tasks will be developed based on the student’s background skills and interests.

PARI’s IT infrastructure includes an extensive high quality fiber optic network consisting of more than 75 miles of precision glass fiber routed through five miles of conduit, tunnel and fiber ducts. Network nodes deploy carrier-grade components linked to server-class computer operating systems. Data storage capacity totals more than 150 terabytes.

Radio Astronomy at PARI
This Space Grant Intern will work with PARI Science Director, Dr. Michael Castelaz, as the PARI staff and other professors begin the commissioning process of an interferometer using PARI’s two 26 meter radio telescopes. The intern will work on calibration of new radio receivers and pointing accuracy of the telescopes. The Intern will use the telescopes to make the first measurements with this world-class scientific instrument.

STEM Education at PARI
This Space Grant Intern will work directly with the PARI Education Director, Christi Whitworth and other science educators including the Cisco/PARI Kenan Fellow Derek Dennis. The intern will help develop and implement educational programs for high school students who will be on PARI campus for summer resident programs. Those programs are: the Duke Talent Identification Program for astronomy and physics and the Burroughs Wellcome sponsored Space Science Lab. In addition, the intern will assist with public outreach programs involving science education programs for all ages.

Eligibility Requirements
The applicant must be:

• Pursuing a bachelors degree in a science, engineering, technology, or mathematics discipline of interest to NASA or working at a NASA center or aero/space industry.
• Classified as an undergraduate or graduate student at a NC Space Grant member university during the 2008-09 academic year.
• In good academic standing with a GPA of 3.0 (out of 4.0).
• A permanent United States citizen.

For more information about PARI, please visit PARI.

Application
Please complete and return this application to apply for a PARI Summer Internship. For more information, please call 919-515-5933.

Submit completed applications to Jobi Cook via email (jobi_cook@ncsu.edu) or postal mail:
Jobi B. Cook
Associate Director, NC Space Grant
Box 7515, NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695

Due Date
Applications Due: February 1, 2009