1211 West 22nd Street | Suite 900 | Oak Brook, IL USA 60523 | +1.630 ...
Three-time Amelia Earhart Fellow wins WIA’s Aerospace Awareness Award Sonoma State University Professor of Physics and Astronomy Dr. Lynn Cominsky has been awarded the Aerospace Awareness Award by Women in Aerospace (WIA). She is one of six women in the nation selected for their devotion to the advancement of women in aerospace and for their significant contributions to the field. Cominsky was nominated by Dr. Hashima Hasan of NASA Headquarters and was chosen for her "excellent leadership and sustained dedication to aerospace education and for her tenacious advocacy for girls and young women in aerospace." She was honored along with other award recipients in Arlington, VA at the Ritz Carton Pentagon City Hotel at a reception dinner and ceremony on Oct. 29, 2014. Cominsky began her career in aerospace at MIT, where she attended graduate school in physics, supported for three years by Zonta’s Amelia Earhart Fellowships. ‘Zonta’s support was critical to me when I was in graduate school, as the Earhart Fellowships allowed me greater autonomy in choosing research topics to pursue” said Cominsky. “It was also wonderful to know that I had the support of so many women as I ventured down a professional pathway that is so dominated by men. I was the first and only woman in my high-energy astrophysics research group and I have tried hard to create similar opportunities for other women as my career has progressed” she added. Following graduate school at MIT, Cominsky moved to California to work at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Lab where she held various management positions in the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite project. She joined the Sonoma State faculty in 1986, following the Challenger disaster, which delayed the EUVE launch by many years. Continuing scientific research in high-energy astrophysics, Cominsky became a scientific co-investigator on several NASA missions including the Swift gamma-ray burst Explorer, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). In 1999, Cominsky switched gears and founded SSU's Education and Public Outreach Group, which supports several NASA high-energy astrophysics missions, and also develops curriculum for the NSF-funded Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) project and for the US Department of Education. She is an author of over 100 research papers in refereed journals, and the Principal Investigator on over $15 million of grants to SSU, primarily in science education. Cominsky’s group excels at K-12 teacher training, curriculum development, and the development of interactive web activities for students that teach math and science. In 1211 West 22nd Street | Suite 900 | Oak Brook, IL USA 60523 | +1.630.928.1400 www.zonta.org | [email protected]
the past, she has served as the scientific director for the PBS NOVA television program "Monster of the Milky Way" and accompanying planetarium show "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity." In 1993, Cominsky was named SSU's Outstanding Professor, and the California Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology, in 2009, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and in 2013, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
the past, she has served as the scientific director for the PBS NOVA television program "Monster of the Milky Way" and accompanying planetarium show "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity." In 1993, Cominsky was named SSU's Outstanding Professor, and the California Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology, in 2009, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and in 2013, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
