Student Co-Authors Paper in Nature

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M., May 20, 1999 -- Aaron D. Stump, a senior majoring in materials engineering at New Mexico Tech, was a co-author of a scientific paper which was recently published in the weekly science magazine Nature.

Stump is a native of Tucumcari and longtime resident of Portales. He is a graduate of Portales High School the son of Jerry and Meg Stump, former Tucumcari and Portales residents who now hail from Buffalo Lake, Minn.

The paper which he co-authored was titled "Aerosol-Assisted Self Assembly of Mesostructured Spherical Nanoparticles."

The paper was the result of research work which Stump was directly involved with last summer at the University of New Mexico's Center for Microengineered Materials. The research project was a collaborative effort which also involved scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, as well.

Stump currently is working on his senior design project at New Mexico Tech, another collaborative assignment which involves engineers at Motorola in Albuquerque.

Stump, a member of the New Mexico Tech chapter of the Materials and Metallurgy Society, has been attending the state-supported research university under a Counselor's Choice Scholarship.

When he is not pursuing his studies and research projects, the Portales High graduate trains and boxes as a member of the Socorro Boxing Club. In addition, Stump says he enjoys writing in his leisure time, particularly short works of poetry and fiction.

"I believe the New Mexico Tech materials engineering department is probably one of the best available in the nation for an undergraduate education," Stump says.

The hard-studying, hard-working materials engineering senior also has acquired a deep respect for his fellow students while at Tech: "I'd like to convey my congratulations to all the recent New Mexico Tech graduates in materials engineering and other fields," he adds.