David Fulcher and Monique Kubovsky have been awarded the 2025–2026 William Oegerle Scholarship in Physics and Astronomy. David and Monique submitted outstanding applications in a competitive proposal process. David will work with Dr. Elizabeth Lada in the Department of Astronomy to measure a range of properties of stars, notably including their masses, as they emerge from their natal gas clouds in the constellation of Orion. Working with Dr. Amlan Biswas in the Department of Physics, Monique will grow thin films and heterostructures of manganite materials and use dielectrophoresis to control their ferromagnetic domains, with applications to solid state memory devices.
The William Oegerle Scholarship provides support for undergraduate students who show exceptional promise in conducting research. The scholarship was created by UF alumnus Dr. William Oegerle, who graduated from UF in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and received his Ph.D. in 1977 from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Oegerle was a Director with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He worked on the Hubble Space Telescope and in 2016 was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the top honor NASA can bestow on a civilian.
Congratulations to David and Monique!