About PSU
Plymouth State University (PSU) is a public, four-year university enrolling approximately 4200 undergraduate and 2,600 graduate students.
Located in central New Hampshire, PSU is part of the University System of New Hampshire, which serves the educational needs of residents of the state of New Hampshire and the Northern New England region.
With With nearly 50 undergraduate majors and 70 minors in programs that include business, education, the arts, the humanities, and the natural and social sciences, PSU appeals to a large range of interests.
Plymouth State University
New
Hampshire Space Grant supports a well-known meteorology
program at Plymouth State
University by encouraging students to participate in
research, both during the academic year and over the summer.
Scholarships are available to meteorology majors during
all four years of their studies.
The meteorology program at PSU is component of an interdisciplinary Department of Chemical, Earth, Atmospheric and Physical Sciences that also includes secondary science education. Over 80% of the department's students are meteorology majors. Over the past five years, the number of students enrolled in the general education "Weather" course has averaged well near 200 students per year. The Bachelor of Science degree program in meteorology meets or exceeds all the suggested guidelines established by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the National Weather Service.
Though PSU is not a research institution per se, the Meteorology Program has an active program of faculty-assisted student research projects. Some projects were started through summer student programs, such as, Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs at NASA/Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres, the National Environmental Data Information Service (NESDIS), the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science program. Other projects were generated locally. The PSU meteorology program is a major participant in the NOAA-funded Atmospheric Invesitgations Regional Modeling And Prediction Funded (AIRMAP) project with the University of New Hampshire and the Mount Washington Observatory. Most of the PSU students who have participated in summer or senior research programs have gone on to graduate school, where all have received teaching or research assistantships.
NHSGC involvement with PSU includes:
• Attracting and retaining good students for the meteorology program and preparing them for careers in environmental research. Eight $1000 scholarships are distributed — two for each class. Beginning students typically receive scholarships and retain them as long as they stay in the major, and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better, for up to 4 years. Alternatively, two $1000 awards are made to students entering their senior year. As much as possible, the scholarships address the under representation of females and minorities in the program. All Space Grant students are guaranteed to receive undergraduate research experience during their senior year.
• Summer fellowship stipends ($2500) provide two students with the opportunity to work full-time for a 10-week period on projects developed locally. Juniors apply for these positions by submitting a research proposal, and are selected based on their proposal and academic record.