U of S Engineering Student Wins Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award

Posted November 14, 2003


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 9 a.m. Friday, November 14th, 2003 2003-11-11-ENG

U of S Engineering Student Wins Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award

Today University of Saskatchewan engineering graduate student Jane Cavanagh
will be honored with a prestigious 2003 Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award for
a collaborative project with NASA scientists that will help improve
astronaut safety.

Cavanagh is one of only three Canadian women and 35 around the world to
receive the fellowship this year which is awarded by Zonta International, a
worldwide organization that works to advance the status of women.

The award, worth $6,000 U.S., is presented annually to women pursuing
graduate degrees in aerospace sciences or aerospace engineering. It was
established in 1938 in honor of the famous pilot Amelia Earhart.

"We are very proud of Ms. Cavanagh's success in this international
competition and the high-calibre teaching and research that have contributed
to her achievement," said Steven Franklin, U of S Vice-President Research.

Debbie Arney, district governor of Zonta International who will present
Cavanagh with the award at a special ceremony on campus today, said the
Amelia Earhart awards are very special.

"Not only are they given to incredibly outstanding female scientists, but
the funds are raised by Zontians in 68 countries throughout the world," she
said. "Some of these funds have been raised by people that will never see
the inside of a large research university and by people in Third World
countries. The Amelia Earhart fellows are studying not just for themselves,
but for women all over the world."

Cavanagh, the first U of S student to work on a graduate degree in the
combined fields of fire sciences and microgravity, will be recognized for
her ground-breaking study into the flammability of casual clothing such as
T-shirts worn by astronauts while in orbit, as well as the severity of skin
burns in space.

Still in the initial phases of her research, Cavanagh is collaborating with
scientists at NASA's John Glenn Research Center. This month, fabric
performance in microgravity will be tested through an experiment on NASA's
KC-135 low gravity aircraft.

"We need to know how fast and how badly an astronaut could be burned if
clothing caught fire in space," says Cavanagh. "When we test any kind of
flammability on the ground, we do it with the expectation that it's the
worst case scenario. But it's been discovered through other tests that
microgravity flammability rates are comparable or worse than gravity rates,
which is why this work is so important."

She notes there is only a 20-second window in which to run the experiment,
which will involve using a hot wire to set fabric samples on fire. Two
different kinds of heat-flux gauges will provide readings as to how long it
would take before an astronaut received second- and third-degree burns.

Cavanagh will examine the samples to determine how the intensity of burns
changes in various oxygen mixtures and according to how tight or
loose-fitting the clothing is. She is co-supervised by two U of S professors
-- mechanical engineer professors David Torvi and Kamiel Gabriel.

Cavanagh is the second U of S student to receive this award. Denise Derby
Stilling, also from mechanical engineering, won the award a decade ago.

Since its inception in 1938, more than $4.2 million U.S. has been raised for
the Amelia Earhart Fellowship Awards. These fellowships have assisted the
advancement of 547 women from 51 countries in the aerospace field. The
scholars have manufactured materials now on the moon, made commercial air
flights safer, helped prevent fires in spacecraft, and served as members of
a NASA space shuttle crew. More information is available at: www.zonta.org

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, November
14 in the Thorvaldson Building Room 271 (the "airplane room"). Media are
welcome.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:

Kathryn Warden
Research Communications
Office of the Vice-President Research
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research