Astronaut fund rewards University of Oklahoma student
Senior wants to study precipitation

BY JAMES S. TYREE Comments 0
Published: September 26, 2009

NORMAN — University of Oklahoma senior Zachary Flamig is a natural to become a research meteorologist, considering both of his parents have science backgrounds and his own longtime fascination with weather.

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Legal group gives funds to OU student

NORMAN — Mitchell McCuistian, formerly of Claremore, is one of 20 first-year law students to receive a 2009 American Bar Association Legal Opportunity Scholarship.

The University of Oklahoma student was one of about 900 students from across the country who applied. The $5,000 scholarship, started 10 years ago by Oklahoma City attorney William Paul when he was the American Bar Association president, can be renewed.

Paul’s purpose, according to an OU College of Law press release, "was to encourage racially and ethnically diverse students to apply to and attend law school.”

McCuistian, a University of Arkansas graduate who calls himself "a proud member of the Cherokee Nation,” is president of the OU College of Law’s first-year class. He also will receive a $5,000 scholarship from the William G. Paul Endowed Scholarship Fund.

But winning a $10,000 award from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the largest scholarship for science and engineering students based solely on merit, never is a sure thing.

Flamig, of Los Alamos, N.M., is one of 17 students in the nation to receive a scholarship this year, which is paying for his tuition and fees. He received the scholarship check Friday from Donna Shirley, a former OU assistant dean of engineering and retired NASA program manager.

"Thank you,” his mother Pandy Lolos said. "We are paying out-of-state tuition.”

This marked the fifth straight year an OU student received one of the prestigious scholarships.

Hail piqued interest

Founded in 1984 by the six surviving original Mercury astronauts, the scholarships are awarded "based on exceptional performance, initiative and creativity” in the student’s chosen scientific field.

Those qualities are evident in Flamig’s parents: His father, Duane Flamig, is a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and his mother earned a master’s degree in biochemistry before spending the last few years owning and operating a quilt shop.

Their son is an undergraduate research assistant at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman. He is scheduled to complete his bachelor’s degree in meteorology with distinction in May and ultimately plans to research precipitation and flash flooding.

"When I was a small kid, in May 1995, there was a hailstorm in Fort Worth,” said Zachary Flamig, whose family lived in Texas before moving to New Mexico. "I don’t remember a lot, but it was really large hail and I became interested in weather.”

Phillip Chilson, an associate professor of meteorology, nominated Flamig for the scholarship for his "bright mind.”

"There is excellence, and then there are people who rise above that level,” Chilson said. "You can see that in their classwork and in their research, and Zac showed that.”