Embry-Riddle Scientist Irfan Azeem Wins NSF Award

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Embry-Riddle Scientist Irfan Azeem Wins NSF Early Career Award

Daytona Beach, Fla., April 13, 2005 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University space physicist Irfan Azeem has received the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for new faculty members, the Faculty Early Career Development award. The grant recognizes and supports the early career activities of teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

Azeem, an assistant professor of engineering physics at the university, will receive $439,545 over the next five years for his proposal to investigate how sudden stratospheric warming events affect the mesosphere. These warming events are driven by the breakdown of the polar vortex, a huge whirlpool of air that circulates 20-50 kilometers above the Arctic surface during winter.

Such events are thought to affect the entire middle and upper atmosphere, causing circulation to vary in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region and abruptly lowering temperatures there. Such changes are expected to alter the dynamical state of this region in ways that are not well known.

Azeem’s project also will introduce undergraduate students, particularly those from groups underrepresented in higher education, to research and career opportunities in space physics.

“Dr. Azeem is an energetic, innovative young faculty member who has already contributed to upper-atmospheric research at a national level,” said Christina Frederick, associate provost for research and graduate studies. “We are fortunate to have him as a faculty member and role model for our students.”

In other research, Azeem is developing new methods for using satellites to study planetary waves and tides and analyzing satellite and radar data to investigate the response of the neutral-ion winds in the lower thermosphere to geomagnetic and solar activity.

Azeem is the second Embry-Riddle faculty member to receive the NSF Career award. Last December, space physicist James Wanliss also received the award for his research.

Before joining the Embry-Riddle faculty in 2002, Azeem spent two years at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as a research associate working on meteor radar system and satellite data analyses.

Azeem received his Ph.D. and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and space sciences from the University of Michigan in 1999 and 1997 and his B.Eng. (Honors) with a first class in electronics engineering from the University of Hull, England, in 1993.

Embry-Riddle, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering and meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates more than 30,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Extended Campus at more than 130 teaching centers in the United States, Canada and Europe, and worldwide through distance learning.