Daytona Beach Campus - College of Arts & Sciences

Department of Physical Sciences

Department Alumni

Spring 2008 Graduates

Aaron Stomski entered the Engineering Physics program in fall of 2003 and since then has been engaged in numerous groups and organizations around campus. These activities included being a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Sigma Pi Sigma, and the Society of Physics Students, working a summer in the Space Physics Research Lab, and working on the student satellite project, Eagle Eye. During his time at Embry-Riddle, Aaron also participated in numerous intramural sports including, 3-on-3 basketball, 5-on-5 basketball, soccer, softball, and flag football. Aaron considers one of his top accomplishments while at college to be, being selected for the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps Tweedale Scholarship after completing two years in the Engineering Physics program. Upon graduation, Midshipman Stomski will have a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics with a minor in mathematics and will have graduated Magna Cum Laude. Last November Midshipman Aaron Stomski was selected by Admiral Donald to become Embry-Riddle’s first Submarine Officer and will be reporting to Charleston, SC for Nuclear Power School.

Michael Kuss first began his service as a student during his first week of school, working at the front desk in Mihcael Kuss the PS Department. Since then, he has worked several jobs on and off campus, including the physics tutoring lab, the physics and chemistry labs, and the Orientation Team. Most notably however, has been his time in the Space Physics Lab, where he says, "I learned everything I know." Mike has served as most of the positions available for the Society of Physics Students, and is currently the president of the Physics Honors Society. More than anything though, Michael has enjoyed the camaraderie and friendships he has made throughout his years in school here. He will be moving on to Colorado this summer, working as an intern for the National Renewable Energy Lab and hopes to attend graduate school in the fall. He wants all of his friends, professors, and family to know that he loves them and doesn't know what he would do without them.

Living in Houston, Texas, Craig Benjamin has always enjoyed visiting the Johnson Space Center. In fact, when he was in 7th grade, Craig came home from school and said “I want to be an Astronaut” and that’s why he went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for Aerospace Engineering. Before event starting classes, Craig switched to Engineering Physics because of their emphasis on Space Systems Engineering. During his four years at ERAU, Craig has been highly involved on campus by holding position in Student Government, Omicron Delta Kappa, and working for the Physical Sciences Department for all four years of his college career. After graduating, Craig plans to go back to Houston for a couple of months and then move to Los Angeles, California to start his new job with The Boeing Company as a Spacecraft Systems Engineer.

Past Graduates

Rebecca Hare Torzone (EP class of 1998)

Rebecca Hare looked upon the completion of her undergraduate education in Engineering Physics at Embry-Riddle as a new beginning; one that would lead her closer to her lifelong dream of being an integral part of the space program.

Right away, Rebecca married Stephen Torzone, a The Torzone Family December 1997 Embry-Riddle graduate in Aeronautical Science. They immediately moved to Colorado where Rebecca started graduate school at Colorado Technical University (CTU) completing a MS in Computer Science in December 1999. Recently she received a second master's degree in Aeronautical Science with Human Factors concentration via Embry-Riddle Distance Learning.
Rebecca started her career in Satellite Operations working on the Milstar defense satellite. She then moved to Missile Defense at the Joint National Integration Center (JNIC) at Schriever AFB in Colorado Springs. She currently works on large-scale, end-to-end simulations with a multitude of perturbations of the system and then performing analysis of the performance results. She also works part-time as an adjunct professor at two universities. She has taught on-line and on-ground classes at Colorado Technical University in their computer science/information technology department. She also teaches on-line classes in Academic Strategies for the IT/Design Professional at Kaplan College.
Rebecca was just selected for participation in Northrop Grumman's Systems Engineering Associate (SEA) program. Five candidates are selected each year from the Missions Systems sector to go on a two-year assignment. The SEA program is a fast-paced training program for employees with a great deal of potential. She plans to remain at Northrop Grumman working on a variety of projects and gaining as much engineering experience as possible. Upon completion of the SEA program, she plans to pursue a Ph.D.

Patrick Marsden (EP Class of 1991)

Patrick was born in rural northern Wisconsin, but moved to Ocala, FL when he was eight. Once in Florida, he became very interested in the space program. Being able to see launches at the Cape from your own backyard will do that. Originally, like all of the first EP class, he was enrolled in Aerospace or Aeronautical Engineering. A couple of weeks after getting accepted to ERAU, he switched to Engineering Physics.

Immediately after graduation, he spent a summer working at Space Camp in Alabama. Then he attended The George Washington University's Joint Institute for Advancement of Flight Sciences (JIAFS) at NASA Langley in Hampton Virginia. He worked and took classes there, eventually earning a Master's in Astronautical Engineering in 1993. While there, he worked for NASA's Atmospheric Sciences Group on the Magellan Program, which was orbiting Venus at the time. That work, which eventually became his thesis, involved examining atmospheric torques on the spacecraft and deducing the atmospheric density profile which caused those torques. The work helped expand the understanding of the Venusian atmosphere.

After graduating, Patrick was offered a position with Computational Physics Inc. (CPI) in Fairfax, Virginia. This was a small atmospheric research company. After a year or so, he became a Co-PI contractor for the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. There he did similar research tasks for the Middle Atmospheric Group of the Space Sciences Division. The main product was large computer simulations predicting how the atmosphere would behave. Ironically, Patrick shared an office at NRL with Andy Nichols, also from the first EP class. And just down the hall were Scott Diamond, Doug Drob, and Steve Lockwood, also from the class of ’91. After a few years in a pure science position, he decided that he'd like a little more exposure to the engineering side of life. he took a position with a satellite software company in Herndon, Virginia. That company was promptly acquired by L3 Communications. Patrick worked as a systems engineer helping to design and implement ground communications systems for a variety of spacecraft clients. It was there that he was able to exercise my orbital mechanics knowledge.

From his exposure at L3, Patrick became convinced that he really liked spacecraft engineering. In 1999, he moved down the street to Orbital Sciences Corporation, where his wife was already working. He was hired into the group responsible for new business, proposals, and conceptual mission design studies. The work was mostly composed of academic designs, similar to doing an EP Senior Design Project every 45 days. He was involved in the winning proposals for the recently launched Dawn mission to the asteroid belt and the upcoming OCO mission. He also headed a number of funded studies for NASA and other clients. Eventually he transitioned to a systems engineering position on a government spacecraft. He was responsible for the design of the command and telemetry scheme and assisted with the flight dynamics.

Patrick is currently a senior engineer with Orbital Sciences, just outside of Washington, D.C. He works as a spacecraft systems engineer for DoD and NASA missions. His most recent spacecraft was a small technology demonstration vehicle for the government, for which he served as a Flight Safety Engineer during mission operations.