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National Science Foundation Awards Research Grant to Penn State Lehigh Valley

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a three-year research grant in the amount of nearly $184,000 to Dr. Tai-Yin Huang, associate professor of physics at Penn State Lehigh Valley. This is the second time in five years that the NSF has awarded Dr. Huang a grant to pursue her research and involve Penn State Lehigh Valley undergraduates in the research process.

The project, entitled "Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI): Gravity Wave Effects in the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere (MLT) Region with a 2-D, Nonlinear, Multiple-Airglow Chemistry-Dynamics Model," aims to investigate gravity wave effects in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere region with a 2-D, nonlinear, Multiple-Airglow Chemistry-Dynamics (MACD) model. 

"This research primarily focuses on the effects induced by gravity waves, which can be generated by many sources like jet streams, tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, nuclear explosions, and thunderstorms," says Huang. "Most of them originate from the lower atmosphere, and they act as a vehicle for energy and momentum transport to the middle and upper atmosphere. Understanding gravity waves is essential in understanding atmospheric dynamics and long distance energy transport."

"This grant also provides a unique means of supporting the mission of Penn State Lehigh Valley to enhance undergraduate education through a combination of teaching, research, and service," says Dr. Huang.

Dr. Huang received her first NSF RUI research grant in 2004. The grant was also the first research grant awarded to Penn State Lehigh Valley.  Several Penn State Lehigh Valley undergraduate students have also benefited from this research award. The students were involved in the research projects supported by this grant as undergraduate research assistants and presented their research findings at the NSF-sponsored CEDAR meetings. The new grant will also be used to support several undergraduate research assistants, and will support Dr. Huang during the summer months and her sabbatical leave in 2009-2010.   

Dr. Huang's research focuses on dynamics, chemistry, and energetics in the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere region. She is a theorist in Aeronomy, specializing in analytical approach, numerical simulation, and data analysis. The topics of her projects include, but are not limited to, exothermic heating, secular variations of minor species and airglow emissions, wave ducting, the formation of Mesospheric Inversion Layers (MILs), tidal variation of atomic oxygen, nonlinear response of minor species, and lightning-induced transient emissions (LITEs).

Dr. Huang has taught physics at Penn State Lehigh Valley since 2002. She received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cincinnati.