Embry-Riddle Makes Major Commitment to Space with New Degree Programs

Daytona Beach, Fla., May 16, 2002 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, whose undergraduate Aerospace Engineering program has been ranked the best in the country two years in a row by U.S. News & World Report, is enhancing its stature as the nation's leading aerospace institution with the addition of an undergraduate degree in Space Physics and a graduate degree in Space Science.

"Embry-Riddle wants to set the agenda for activities in space and we believe these two programs are fundamental to that effort," says Barry Benedict, senior vice president and chief academic officer at the university.

The master's degree will be offered at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach, Fla., campus beginning in the Fall 2002 semester and the bachelor's degree at the Prescott, Ariz., campus in Fall 2003.

Professor Nick Devereux, co-author with Professor Darrel Smith of the Space Physics degree proposal, says understanding the difference between Space Physics and Aerospace Engineering is to understand the basic difference between engineering and physics: one applies to construction and the other to research.

"Engineers are builders," Devereux says. "Physicists use the instruments, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, built by the engineers to do research." He adds that Space Physics graduates should be entering the field at a good time because there is a shortage of physicists right now.

At the Daytona Beach campus, Rodney Piercey, head of the Physical Sciences Dept., says the Space Science program is a mix of physics and engineering.

"It is a logical, high-level extension of our undergraduate program (in Engineering Physics)," Piercey says. He adds that Embry-Riddle graduates with a degree in Engineering Physics have had great success securing positions in the aerospace industry with NASA, or with NASA contractors such as Boeing, Hughes Aircraft, Lockheed Martin, and the GE satellite division.

While a typical goal for graduates with a Space Science master's degree might be payload processing manager or space mission controller, both ground-based positions, Professor Peter Erdman, who drafted the course proposal along with Piercey, says a survey of the incoming class shows more interest in another NASA specialty.

"Ninety percent of our incoming class want to be astronauts," Erdman says. Embry-Riddle has, to date, produced seven astronauts. Erdman says some people already working in the space industry at Cape Canaveral have inquired about enrolling in the new master's program. He adds that the program should also appeal to students from around the world because of the close working relationship between NASA and Embry-Riddle.

The Space Science curriculum at the Daytona Beach campus will include conceiving and designing complex space systems, developing a diverse set of research skills, and supporting research efforts in space and atmospheric physics and space systems engineering within course offerings that include:

• Advanced Spacecraft Dynamics Control
• Advanced Space Physics
• Experimental Methods in Space Science
• Numerical Methods for Engineers and Scientists
• Spacecraft Power and Thermal Design

Embry-Riddle's Space Physics undergraduates in Prescott can expect to concentrate on some of the same courses offered in other physics programs, such as atomic and nuclear physics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, and statistical thermodynamics. Four of the specific courses featured in the new 120-hour curriculum are:

• Astrophysics
• Nuclear/Particle Cosmology
• Remote Sensing
• Space Propulsion Systems

For more information on the master's program, contact the Daytona Beach graduate admissions office at (386) 226-6115, (800) 388-3728, or gradadm@db.erau.edu. The Prescott undergraduate admissions office can be reached at (928) 777-6600, (800) 888-3728, or admit@pr.erau.edu. Information for both programs is available at www.embryriddle.edu.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates 24,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 150 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.