LIVERMORE, Calif. – November 20, 2007 – When St. Paul native Michael Busch looks to the sky, he may well be stealing a glimpse at his future.  The 19-year-old astronomy student, who has aspirations for space travel, will enter his third year of graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., supported by a full graduate fellowship from the prestigious Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.

“I’d be very interested in participating in a human mission to near-Earth asteroids, which could be taking place as early as a decade from now,” Busch says.  “New technology has allowed planetary scientists to accelerate the rate of new asteroid discoveries.  Eventually, we will find asteroids that will impact Earth, and will need to figure out what to do about it.” 

Busch is one of 15 graduate students selected from more than 580 across the country to receive the Hertz graduate fellowship.  Of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, Hertz Fellows each receive up to $240,000 over five years to pursue their own scientific interests at top universities in the United States.  This no-strings-attached support gives Hertz Fellows financial independence and freedom to conduct innovative research because, unlike many other grants, university and study choices are not limited by strict funding requirements.

“Hertz Fellows represent the very best young scientific talent in our nation,” says John Holzrichter, PhD, Hertz Foundation president.  “These students embody the drive and curiosity to solve the most difficult problems our world faces, and we are pleased to support them as they grow in their chosen disciplines.”

Busch built his first telescope with plywood and plumbing parts at age 10, and has kept his sights locked on the heavens ever since.  His imagination is fueled by extraordinary events like the 1908 Tunguska Explosion in Russia– a massive explosion on the Tunguska River believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large asteroid fragment at an altitude of five to 10 kilometers above Earth’s surface. 

Though an asteroid collision with Earth is rare, Busch says studying impact hazards now is important so that when a dangerous asteroid is discovered, planetary scientists will have advanced the technology necessary to manage it.  This is why Busch is pursuing research on trajectory prediction and physical properties of asteroids using radio astronomy techniques.  “From planetary and asteroid studies, we can learn the history of our solar system, as well as how to predict the path of potentially dangerous asteroids and where to mine for new mineral resources that we may soon deplete on Earth,” he says. 

When Busch is not observing Martian dust storms or analyzing telescope data, he is reading or writing science fiction, bicycling or cooking.  He has also spent time volunteering to teach science and math to Minnesota youth and as an amateur astronomer opening up a new world to star-gazing students.

By the time Busch graduated from St. Paul’s Highland Park Senior High in 2003, he already had two years of college credits.  In 2005, he graduated summa cum laude with distinction from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minn., with a bachelor of science in both physics and astrophysics.  While as an undergraduate, he received the National Merit Scholarship and the University’s Presidential Scholarship, Undergraduate Research Scholarship and Astronomy Department Scholarship.  Busch’s father, Kevin Busch, is a lawyer with the Moss & Barnett law firm in Minneapolis, and his mother, Susan Wyble, is a nurse and hospice volunteer in the Twin Cities metro area.  Busch’s brother, Patrick, 20, is a college student at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa.