Dr. Alison Peck

SOCORRO, N.M., May 23, 2000 - New Mexico Tech's top award to a graduate student, the Founder's Award, was presented to Alison Peck at commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 13. Peck also received a Ph.D. in Physics (with Dissertation in Astrophysics).

This was the second Founder's Award for Peck, who also received the award when she graduated with her master's degree in 1997. Her first Founder's Award was based primarily on her active leadership of the Graduate Students Association. Her second Founder's Award was driven by her outstanding research, including three high-quality publications in the Astrophysical Journal which arose out of her doctoral research. Her research advisors were Dr. David Westpfahl of New Mexico Tech and Dr. Gregory Taylor of NRAO.

Peck has been doing research on compact symmetric objects, which are young radio galaxies which emit jets perpendicular to the observer's line of sight. The small linear sizes of these objects make them valuable for studies of both the evolution of radio galaxies and testing unified schemes for active galactic nuclei.

Recently, Peck was one of the discoverers of the third most luminous megamaser discovered to date. This megamaser became detectable when it "flared" in conjunction with the host radio galaxy. These observations were part of her research at the Max Plank Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, where she has accepted a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship.

Peck was an active member of New Mexico Tech's Strategic Planning Committee in 1998. She has twice been the recipient of the Physics Department's Leslie Fallon award for the department's Outstanding Physics Teaching Assistant. She has been active in recruiting graduate students for New Mexico Tech.

Peck is the daughter of Dr. Elizabeth Peck of Kearney, Nebraska, and Dr. Dwight Peck of Bassins, Switzerland. Peck received her bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska at Kearney with a double major in physics and math. She attended South Kingston High School in Peacedale, R.I.