LMU Physics Professor Secures NASA Grant

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded Emily Hawkins, assistant professor of physics, a $300,000 grant over two years for her project, "Experimental Investigation of Vital Nutrient Transport in Icy Ocean Worlds." Bringing this major NASA grant to Loyola Marymount University is also a major personal milestone for Hawkins, who has focused her research on the fluid dynamics of subsurface oceans on icy moons since arriving at LMU in 2020.

The NASA-funded study will use a custom cylindrical device in Hawkins' Fluids of Astrophysical Bodies (FAB) Lab, housed in the LMU Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering, to replicate subsurface ocean dynamics by rotating at variable speeds while heated from below and cooled from above. Experiments with 3D-printed seafloor topography and analog entrainment particles will reveal how nutrients are transported across ocean layers.

"This project will help answer several crucial outstanding questions pertinent to the search for life on icy moons with subsurface oceans," Hawkins said. "It brings the opportunity for involved students to deeply engage in experimental planetary science research."

The project will support five undergraduate students, funded via full-time research stipends over the summer months, advancing NASA Decadal Survey priorities while immersing LMU students in planetary science research. One such student, senior Matt Dubois, has been working in Hawkins' lab for several years.

"My research was about looking into how small, nutrient-like particles travel through rotating convection systems of water to see if these nutrients on these moons could make it from the bottoms of the oceans to the tops of the oceans in order to be energized," Dubois said.

Hawkins didn't set out to become a physicist. She didn't grow up gazing at stars or poring over child-level science books about astronomy.

"I wasn't that person at all," Hawkins said with a laugh, adding that she often tells friends she feels like an anomaly among her colleagues.

She enrolled in a high school physics class that enthralled her - so much so that when she began her undergraduate education, she was a physics major, albeit reluctantly. It wasn't until she started an undergraduate research internship at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, funded by NASA, that things clicked.

"That's really where I started getting so into space science - all kinds of space science - and in particular, being at JPL missions and NASA," Hawkins explained.

She had already worked under an undergraduate professor as a researcher and knew she enjoyed the process. But this was something different.

"I started to envision a dream during grad school - a dream to do NASA-funded research that directly tied to mission objectives of active or future missions that NASA was planning or carrying out. It's been a five-to-ten-year dream, at this point, to earn a grant like this and be able to directly work with NASA."

That's where Hawkins' boundless enthusiasm and focused work ethic kicked in. She learned how to write grants and sat on review panels for similar proposals to better understand the types of projects NASA prioritized.

For her own proposal, she leaned on her network. Local researchers, scientists, and friends in the industry weighed in. She also stayed abreast of NASA's ongoing work, particularly the Europa Clipper mission.

"I knew it had a launch date of 2024. I started to align my work and project goals with the objectives of the science for what Europa Clipper is going to investigate. That spacecraft is on its way to Europa now, which is just one of the many moons of Jupiter."

For Hawkins, the award is a full-circle moment, connecting her own journey as a student to the role she now plays as a mentor.

"I love working with my students, and I think they can see my passion for the work - just as my mentors once inspired me. I'm really happy that I can be that person, and that's one of the things I love most about being a professor here."