This July, Jeff Boulware, a student pursuing his doctorate at USU, was awarded the 2009 Cryogenic Engineering Conference (CEC) Student Meritorious Paper Award. The award includes not only an impressive certificate, but also a check of $500. This winning paper was titled The Magnetohydrodynamic Response of Liquid Oxygen: Experimentation and Simulation.

“In short, my work is on the magnetic properties of liquid oxygen (LOX). Curie’s Law says that as a paramagnetic material cools down, its susceptibility increases. So, while oxygen at room temperature is fairly benign, once you cool it to -300F, its magnetic response is fairly strong. Magnetic fluids have been studied for decades, but nobody’s ever really done much with LOX. For space applications, LOX is already used in propellant, thermal, and life support systems, so if you could take advantage of its magnetic properties, you might be able to make some of these systems more efficient. Before the technology can get to that point though, the basic research must be conducted to establish a good foundation of its understanding. This is what my research is on,” says Jeff.

He has undoubtedly worked very hard and shown much dedication with this project. Congratulations to Jeff and his advisors, as well as his peers. Good luck in the future!