UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Daniel Abercrombie, a Schreyer Honors College student pursuing a dual major in nuclear engineering and physics, has been awarded a 2013-14 Astronaut Scholarship Foundation scholarship.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was created to ensure that the United States would maintain its leadership in science and technology by supporting promising students in science and engineering. Scholarship candidates must be nominated by faculty members and must be in an engineering, science or mathematics field. Scholarship nominees are those students who have shown initiative, creativity, and excellence in their chosen field.
Abercrombie has exceled in his studies and in undergraduate research at Penn State. One of his advisers describes him as “the best student of his year here in physics.” In addition to exceling in the classroom, Abercrombie has been an asset in in the laboratory. He has made significant contributions to a project in laser-driven acceleration in plasma and has proven himself a productive lab member.
In 2013, Abercrombie was accepted into the prestigious CERN summer REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program at the University of Michigan. This experience offered him exposure to nuclear and particle physics, advanced experimental methods, state-of-the-art facilities, and engineers and scientists with a broad range of cultural backgrounds.
Outside the classroom, he has been involved in leadership roles in the American Nuclear Society and has worked as a tutor on campus.