Tufts Junior Wins Astronaut Scholarship

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (March 14, 2015)— Tufts University junior Erin Kado-Fong will receive a $10,000 Astronaut Scholarship Foundation award, the largest science-oriented undergraduate scholarship in the United States based solely on merit and one of only 38 such scholarships awarded annually nationwide. Kado-Fong won the scholarship during her sophomore year, and will receive her award from former NASA astronaut Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman on Friday, April 1, in Nelson Auditorium on Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus.

At the presentation, which is open to the public, Hoffman will discuss his five flights as a space shuttle astronaut, including the first mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Hoffman is currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Kado-Fong is a junior majoring in astrophysics in Tufts’ School of Arts and Sciences.  In 2015 she was a Research Experience for Undergraduates student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and she currently works for advisors both at Tufts and at the Center for Astrophysics.

"It is a huge honor to have been chosen as an Astronaut Scholarship Foundation scholar," said Kado-Fong. “I am incredibly grateful to my advisor and the rest of the physics department here for the support and opportunities that have allowed me to receive this award.”

The Astronaut Scholarship is the largest monetary award given in the United States to science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate students based solely on merit. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation funds 38 $10,000 scholarships each year and has awarded more than $4 million to deserving students nationwide. Since 1994, $182,500 has been disbursed to Tufts University students. 

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation is a non-profit organization established by the Mercury astronauts in 1984. Its goal is to aid the United States in retaining its world leadership in science and technology by providing scholarships for exceptional college students pursuing degrees in these fields. Today, more than 80 astronauts from the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and Space Station programs have joined in this educational endeavor. For more information about the foundation, call 321-449-4876 or visit www.AstronautScholarship.org. 

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Tufts University, located on three Massachusetts campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville, and Grafton, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university is widely encouraged.