Sky no limit for astronomy whiz

Patricia Gavin has long loved looking at the heavens, a passion that is getting her noticed.

By LOGAN NEILL, Times Staff Writer
Published December 28, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Maurice Rivenbark | Times] Patricia Gavin of Nobleton is a senior at Florida Institute of Technology studying astronomy.

NOBLETON - As a child, Patricia Gavin would look up the night skies around her home and gaze in wonder at endless blankets of stars and planets. Little did she know that she was looking into her future.

These days, the 21-year-old Florida Institute of Technology undergraduate is considered a rising star in the field of astronomy.

Though still four months away from finishing her senior year, she has landed on the watch list of several major college astrophysics departments.

It all has to do with Gavin's interest in Mars, a planet that has long held mystery and intrigue for scientists. Gavin spent much of the past year working with researchers studying the Martian soil, and made a discovery that could help explain how the red planet got its distinctive hue.

While interning this summer at the University of Arkansas' Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, Gavin took part in a series of controlled experiments based on data collected over the past three years by two Mars exploration rovers.

Under her adviser, Dr. Vincent Chevrier, Gavin handled several experiments to try to determine what natural forces may have led to the color of the red dust found on much of the Martian surface.

Although she had no actual Martian soil to work with, Gavin thought that similar minerals on Earth would react that same way if exposed to the same atmospheric conditions found on ancient Mars. When she proposed her theory to her project adviser, he brightened.

"He kind of smiled and said, "This is cool,' " Gavin said. "I don't think he was expecting an undergraduate to come up something like that."

The experiments, which took place over several months in a University of Arkansas laboratory, proved to be of such significance that Gavin was invited to accompany the rest of the research team to Orlando in October to present her findings to planetary scientists at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting.

Looking up

For a young woman who has set her sights on becoming an accomplished scientist in her own right, it was an enormous thrill.

"I suppose some of it is being in the right place at the right time," Gavin said. "I've always believed that you have to be ready to take advantage of opportunities when they arrive. This was a fortunate opportunity that I wasn't about to pass up."

That's pretty much been true for the affable Gavin, whose interest in astronomy goes back to when her parents gave her a small telescope for her 10th birthday. From her back yard she would track the stars and planets, and note them on charts she created herself.

At Hernando Christian, Gavin earned a reputation for being both a math and science whiz in the classroom and a hard-charging power forward on the varsity girls basketball squad.

During her junior year, she was among a handful of high school students nationwide to be invited a two-week Duke University astronomy research project at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in western North Carolina. The experience gave the teen a glimpse into how fulfilling a career in astronomy could be.

"That was it for me," she said. "After that I never thought about doing any thing else."

Earning a full scholarship to FIT, Gavin quickly distinguished herself among her peers and professors, including department of physics and space sciences director Dr. Terry Oswalt, who recommended her to a summer internship in 2006 with the University of Arkansas' Chevrier.

Said Oswalt, "Patricia's capacity to work with the people in this field is amazing. She obviously took the initiative to make the most of the experience and it showed in the accomplishments she made."

Opening doors

Though she acknowledges her work on the Mars summer project probably will amount to little more than a blip on the research project's overall perspective, it did open doors for Gavin, including scholarship offers for postgraduate space science studies at Duke University, Brown University, the University of Arkansas and the University of Arizona.

In addition, Gavin is slated to return to the University of Arkansas this summer to continue her Mars research, a subject she says is awe-inspiring.

"When I see the pictures it's like being an explorer," she said. "You're seeing virgin land with no human footprints on it. It's hard not to be excited about the possibility of going there someday."

Eventually, Gavin says she would love to work for NASA. But she pretty much counts herself out as an astronaut.

"Being part of the effort that puts people into space is way more interesting to me," she said. "I think of myself as more of an on-the-ground person."

[Last modified December 27, 2007, 20:55:48]