Posted on March 19, 2004 at 2:04 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) senior engineering student David Murphy has been awarded the prestigious Dr. Robert H. Goddard Scholarship from the National Space Club for the academic year 2004-2005.
One student in the nation is chosen each year to receive the $10,000 scholarship, which recognizes excellence in the study and research of aerospace science and commitment to a career in aerospace science and technology. Murphy, who has a double major in mechanical and biomedical engineering, will accept the award on Friday, March 19, at the 47th Annual Goddard Memorial Dinner in Washington D.C.
Murphy, son of Ken and Rosanne Murphy of Hoover, is a graduate of Shades Mountain Christian School. Murphy is no stranger to prestigious honors. He earned the Barry M. Goldwater Scholar for the academic year 2003-2004 and earned a spot on the USA Today 2002 All-USA College Academic Third Team, ranking as one of the top 60 college students in the United States.
“On rare occasions, a teacher is privileged to work with a student who seems likely not just to make a name for himself but to change the world,” said Ada Long, Ph.D, director of the UAB Honors Program. “David is superb in the field of engineering, creating and undertaking remarkable research opportunities related to his major. He is also at the top of his classes in the humanities and social sciences.”
The Goddard Scholarship honors Robert H. Goddard, the first scientist who, according to NASA, not only realized the potentialities of missiles and space flight but also contributed directly to their practical realization. He invented the liquid-fueled rocket in 1931 and is widely credited with having set the stage for modern space travel and exploration. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was established in his memory on May 1, 1959.
To earn the scholarship, the student must be an undergraduate junior or senior, or a graduate student. The award is based on transcripts, letters of recommendation, accomplishments, scholastic plans and proven past research and participation in space-related science and engineering.
Under the guidance of Associate Professor of Engineering Heng Ban, Ph.D., Murphy and a team of other UAB students have participated in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, in which undergraduate students fly experiments aboard a KC-135 aircraft. The team has flown an experiment three times over the past three years, examining the charge distributions on particles in micro-gravity. Murphy was team captain during the project’s second year.
Murphy also has conducted combustion research under the direction of faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He studied microslot diffusion flames and co-authored a technical paper on the subject. As part of this research, Murphy led a team of mechanical engineering students studying the behavior of these flames on another KC-135 microgravity flight.
“The breadth as well as depth of his intelligence will make him a significant contributor to future research and teaching in the field of technology and, at the same time, will assure that his contributions further the well-being of our culture,” Long said. “As a professor of English, as well as director of the UAB Honors Program, it gives me both comfort and pleasure to imagine the future in the hands of someone as capable, thoughtful, generous and wise as David Murphy.”
Murphy’s other honors include being named the Engineering Student of the Year in 2001 by the Alabama Society of Professional Engineers and earning the award for the 2001 Outstanding Undergraduate Engineering Student at the UAB School of Engineering. Murphy is a member of the University Honors Program, UAB Mechanical Engineering Honors Program, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. Murphy has earned Presidential Honors eight times and has been on the dean’s list three times. He also has been a student engineer in the Research and Environmental Affairs Department at Southern Company for three years.