Students will have an opportunity to meet former space shuttle astronaut Joe Allen at the Sixth Annual Iowa Space Grant Conference today at Iowa State.

The conference, which will be held today and tomorrow in the Scheman Building, is sponsored by NASA, and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium (ISGC), consisting of the Iowa regents universities and Drake University. It is held at Iowa State every four years.

Dr. Bill Byrd, director of ISGC, said the conference will be educational for students who want to find out how to get funding for research. A variety of presentations to be featured at the conference were funded by monies obtained through ISGC and NASA.

He said twice each year, faculty submit a proposal to do research in some area of importance to NASA and a percentage of the funds has to go to student support.

“The faculty that apply [this year] will be looking for students to spend the money on,” Byrd said.

Four of the research proposals submitted in October will be awarded $25,000 each. Byrd said that next year accepted proposals will be awarded $30,000 each.

The next deadline for proposals is in December. These proposals, if accepted, will receive $10,000 each, Byrd said.

Most of the money for the awards comes from NASA and ISGC member universities, Byrd said. Money from the state and industry makes up the remainder of funds.

Funding is available to almost any discipline pertinent to NASA’s mission, Byrd said. These include areas like remote sensing, physics, public relations (PR), aeronautics and aviation.

Dr. Jack O. Burns, associate dean and director of the Arts and Sciences Research Center at New Mexico State University, will give the keynote address at the conference at 1:30 p.m.

Participants for the conference need to register between 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Registration is free, and open to all. Banquet attendance is $15.