 | Dr.
Christine Hartzell hartzell at umd.edu Office: 3178
Martin Hall Phone: 301-405-4647 Christine Hartzell
joined the Department of
Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland as
Assistant Professor in February 2014 and was promoted to
Associate Professor in July 2020. She completed her PhD in
Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder,
under the direction of Dan Scheeres. Her thesis research topic
was electrostatic dust levitation above asteroids and the Moon.
Prior to coming to UMD, she was a Keck Institute for Space
Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, where she studied
granular mechanics. She completed her undergraduate work in
Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. In her spare time, Dr.
Hartzell enjoys riding horses, downhill skiing (on the West
coast), traveling, cooking and spending time with her cat.
|
Postdoctoral Researchers |
 | Dr. Cecily Sunday
Awards: Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship,
ISAE-SUPAERO Best Ph.D. Thesis Bio: Cecily completed
her Ph.D. at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de
l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) in 2022. She received a M.S. in
Aeronautical and Space Systems from ISAE-SUPAERO and a B.S.
Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Cecily
also worked as a Robotics Engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory designing and testing sampling systems for planetary
exploration missions. Her current research focuses on dust
entrainement in lunar lander plumes. In her free time, Cecily
enjoys traveling, reading and cooking with her husband and
son. |
Graduate Students |
 | Melissa Buys 2nd Year PhD Student
Awards: Fulbright Fellow, South Africa
Bio: Melissa completed her B.S. in Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering at the University of Pretoria. Her
current research focuses on understanding triboelectric
charging of rovers on the Moon. Melissa enjoys hiking,
writing poetry and finding obscure coffee shops in her free
time. |
 | Ian DesJardin 3nd Year PhD Student
Awards: DOE Computational Science Graduate
Fellowship, UMD Flagship Fellowship Bio: Ian
Completed a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a B.A. in Math
at SUNY-Buffalo. Ian's research focuses on computational
simulations of the plasma signature produced by small orbital
debris, enabling new detection methods. Ian enjoys hiking,
trivia, and hanging out with his cat. |
 | Eric Frizzell 6th Year PhD
Student Awards: NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship, 2017 SSPI Award, Clark Fellowship
Bio: Eric completed a B.S. in Economics from the
University of Michigan and worked for a few years prior
to pursuing his passion for aerospace. Eric completed a
second B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at UMD and decided
to stay for his PhD. Eric's research focuses on using
LIGGGHTS to computationally model granular dilation
surrounding lunar craters. Eric's hobbies include
reading, running and learning to play the guitar.
|
 | Charles Pett 5th Year PhD
Student Awards: 2021 SSPI Award for Most
Innovative Technology, NASA Pathways Bio:
Charles completed his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at
the University of Florida. As an undergrad, Charles
worked on clearing dust off of solar panels on Earth.
Now, he's applying his dust knowledge to planetary
science applications - developing a new method to measure
cohesion on asteroids. In his spare time, Charles enjoys
gardening, trying new foods, dancing and spending time
with his cat and dog. |
 | Anmol Sikka 3rd
Year PhD Student Bio: Anmol completed his B.Tech
and M.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Bombay, India, where
he also led the student satellite team. He uses LIGGGHTS (an
open-source DEM code) to make predictions about the effect of
magnetic forces in avalanching of granular materials. In his
spare time, Anmol likes writing his blog, reading
fiction and watching movies. |
 | Connor Wilson 2nd Year MS Student
Bio: Connor completed his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at
Penn State. After graduating, Connor worked at Raytheon for 5
years prior to pursuing his MS. Connor's thesis focuses on
looking for evidence of plasma solitons produced by orbital
debris in existing, ground-based ionospheric plasma density
observations. Connor spends his free time cooking, practicing
music, playing board games, and hiking. |
 | Jonathan Wrieden 1st Year PhD Student
Bio: Jonathan completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
with a focus in Aeronautics at the United States Military Academy
at West Point in 2010. After graduating, Jonathan served on
active duty for six years in the Army as an Infantry Officer.
Then he worked for Otis Elevator Company as a Construction
Superintendent for six years. Now Jonathan is pursuing his PhD
and is researching plasma soliton generation as a method of
orbital debris detection. In his spare time, he enjoys rock
climbing, backpacking, kayaking, skydiving, boxing, and playing
the drums. |
Lab Alumni -
Postdocs |
Yun Zhang
Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Michigan
|
Lab
Alumni - PhD |
Thomas Leps
PhD, Dec 2021, Defended from the South Pole Thesis
Title: Simulation of Magnetic Granular Media Using Open
Source Soft Sphere Discrete Element Method Current
Position: NSF Overwinter Lead for BICEP Array at South Pole
|
Jackson Shannon PhD, May
2021, NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship Thesis
Title: Selected Problems in Many-Revolution Trajectory
Optimization Using Q-Law Current Position: Trajectory
Design Engineer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab |
Alexis Truitt PhD, May 2020,
Director of National Intelligence Science and Technology
Fellowship Thesis Title: Characteristics of Plasma
Solitons Produced by Small Orbital Debris Current
Position: Department of Defense |
Dylan Carter PhD, Dec 2019,
NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship Thesis
Title: Modeling and Experimental Measurement of Triboelectric
Charging in Dielectric Granular Mixtures Current
Position: Systems Engineer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
|
Anthony DeCicco PhD,
July 2018, NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship
Thesis Title: Asteroid Control via Neutral Beam
Emitting Spacecraft Current Position: Future
Technical Leaders Program, Northrup Grumman |
Lab
Alumni - MS with Thesis |
Grace
Zimmerman MS, May 2023 Thesis Title: An
Assessment of Aerogravity-Assisted Trajectories for Aerocapture
at the Ice Giants Current Position: Spacecraft
Navigation Engineer, JHU-APL |
Anand Patel MS, May 2020
Thesis Title: A Model to Predict the Size of 3D Regolith
Clumps on Planetary Bodies Current Position: Lunar
Gateway Spacecraft Autonomous Systems - Planning and Optimization
Engineer, CACI (NASA Johnson) |
Teddy Levine MS, Dec
2016 Thesis Title: The Effects of Tidal
Forces on the Minimum Energy Configurations of the Full
Three-Body Problem Link to
Thesis Current Position: Controls
Engineer, Relative Dynamics (NASA Goddard) |