THE LINK FOUNDATION
NEWS OF INTEREST AND UPDATES
Link Foundation Distinguished Scholar Awards at Indian River State College
The Link Foundation has partnered with Indian River State College (IRSC) for 10 years by providing student scholarships. Link Foundation Distinguished Scholar Awards enable highly qualified Associate in Arts (A.A.) graduates of IRSC each year to continue their education in the fields of marine science, engineering, oceanography, physics, mathematics, energy research, or simulation training. These prestigious scholarships are presented annually to students who attained a 3.5 or higher cumulative grade point average at Indian River State College, and are admitted to an accredited upper-division program. Since 2000, the Link Foundation has provided more than $150,000 to assist more than 60 students with a Link Foundation Distinguished Scholar Award.
IRSC will partner with nationally recognized research institutions in the development of a Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) to help students, educators and citizens develop a better understanding of how ocean and coastal systems work. The project is funded by a prestigious National Science Foundation grant to IRSC in the amount of $2.5 million. Through the COSEE Center at IRSC, scientists will help teachers develop a deeper understanding of biodiversity and methods to foster abstract and critical thinking in their students. Partners include Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Smithsonian Marine Station, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida Sea Grant Extension University of Florida, and the Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA).
Link Building Re-dedication at Harbor Branch/FAU
Currently a re-dedication of the Link Building at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Ft. Pierce, FL, is scheduled for Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 3:00 p.m. The Link Building is undergoing complete renovations since its 1975 opening, and will re-open as the Edwin A. Link Building, housing engineering labs, administration, conference rooms, the library and a new cafeteria, which will gain a mezzanine and open onto a new courtyard. The renovation is to LEED silver certification standards. A completely new "green" building housing science labs and classrooms will be located on the other side of the courtyard.
Harbor Branch/FAU Summer Intern Program
Authored by Dr. M. Dennis Hanisak, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University
In 1974, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, then called Harbor Branch Foundation and only three years old at the time, began a summer internship program for college students, launched with funding from the Link Foundation. At the time, Ed Link, the inventor who had recently designed and built Harbor Branch's Johnson Sea Link manned submersibles, was Vice President of Harbor Branch, and Marilyn Link, Ed's sister, was Harbor Branch's first Managing Director. The idea of the intern program was to provide college students an opportunity to further their education and training, outside the traditional classroom setting, in a real world situation. Working with a mentor on the Harbor Branch staff, each intern developed a project that could be completed in a few weeks and then reported the results to the Harbor Branch community. During that first summer, ten students spent ten weeks working with mentors in the Marine Science and Engineering Divisions. Back in 1974, there were very few such intern opportunities for students interested in marine science or ocean engineering, and the summer intern program quickly became recognized as a successful one.
Over the next thirty-six years this education program, Harbor Branch's oldest, has continued and prospered and has become a special one to our scientists and engineers who are invigorated by the young talent of the interns each year. From 1974 to 2010, there have been 482 summer interns at Harbor Branch/FAU. These interns have come from over 150 universities and colleges from 35 states and 11 foreign countries. They have benefitted from over 100 mentors, all Harbor Branch/FAU staff members. The Link Foundation has supported about 63% of the interns. Another 11% have been funded by the Gertrude E. Skelly Charitable Foundation, which has been providing major support for interns in marine biomedical research since 1996. Most Harbor Branch/FAU interns go on to professional careers, with nearly half receiving an M.S. degree and about 1/6 earning a Ph.D.
List of 2010 Harbor Branch/FAU Summer Interns (and their home institutions) supported by the Link Foundation:
Nicolas Agostinelli, Florida Atlantic University
David Debortoli, Florida Atlantic University
Swati Ghosh, Indian Institute of Technology
Ryo Isshiki, University of Notre Dame
Ashley Lave, Jacksonville University
Elizabeth Marchiondo, Rochester Institute of Technology
Lydia Moreland, Florida Institute of Technology
Richard Mulroy, Florida Atlantic University
Jaine Perotti, Florida Institute of Technology
Jennifer Reed, Wake Forest University
Robyn Schmidt, University of Minnesota
Kristin Stacy, Eckerd College
Ximena Toro, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Maureen Williams, University of Notre Dame
Link Foundation Trustee, Dr. Andrew M. Clark, was a Harbor Branch Summer Intern in 1979.
For more information on the Harbor Branch/FAU Summer intern programs, including application material, see: http://www.fau.edu/hboi/education/internships/index.php.
The Edwin A. Link and Marion C. Link Scholarship Fund
The Link family, the Link Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. Stuart McCarty, a Link Foundation former Trustee and currently a Special Advisor to the Foundation, have established the endowed Edwin A. and Marion C. Link Scholarship Fund in 2007 and is administered by The Community Foundation for South Central New York, Inc.
This scholarship is to be awarded annually to a Binghamton, NY, High School senior who is a resident of Broome County New York and has demonstrated a commitment to engineering, with special consideration to those students who have evidenced an interest in energy, simulation, marine science or aeronautical or ocean engineering. The student must have at least a 3.0 GPA, or its equivalent, and have been active in community and/or extracurricular activities. The $2,000 scholarship award is non-renewable and is to be applied to tuition expenses for the first and second semester of the awardees freshman year at a qualified accredited college or university.
The first endowed scholarship was presented to Marc Houlihan in 2009. Marc is currently a student at Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY.
The second endowed scholarship was presented to Steve Maniates in 2010. Steve is a freshman at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY.
Congratulations to these two young men who, with their academic and community credentials, have a promising future and exemplify the qualities celebrated by the Edwin A. and Marion C. Link Scholarship.
Dr. Laura Lapham, 2003-04 Link Foundation Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellow wins prestigious award
The Link Foundation congratulates 2003-04 Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellow, Dr. Laura Lapham, who received a L’Oreal USA Fellowship for Women in Science in 2008. Dr. Lapham was one of five young women scientists in the nation, selected from 196 applicants, to receive this prestigious $40,000 prize. This Award, administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, provides women in science with funding to help support 12 months of postdoctoral research from the fields of mathematics, engineering, technology (including computer science), and life and physical/material science.
Dr. Lapham made use of this L’Oreal award to underwrite new instrumentation needed for her geochemical research in the Gulf of Mexico on the formation and decomposition of deep-sea gas hydrates – ice-like crystalline formations containing methane gas within the ice lattice.
In addition to this prestigious award, Dr. Lapham also received a National Research Council (NRC) Award in 2008, providing $50,000 in support of her research and also providing the funding for a two-year courtesy faculty position at Florida State University (FSU).
Dr. Lapham graduated from FSU in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, and earned her Ph.D. in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007.
While a Link Fellow, Dr. Lapham’s research project was entitled, “Development of in Situ Probes for Sampling Sediment Pore Waters Surrounding Gas Hydrates.”
ARINC to present award in honor of Edwin A. Link on September 12, 2011
ARINC’s (Aeronautical Radio Inc.) Flight Simulator Engineering and Maintenance Conference will take place at Walt Disney World Hilton, Orlando, FL, September 12-15, 2011. This annual conference attended by flight simulator experts from around the world, identifies technical solutions to engineering and maintenance issues resulting in immediate and long-term savings and increased efficiency for simulator users. An annual award, sponsored by the Flight Simulator Engineering and Maintenance Conference, will be presented in honor of Edwin A. Link at the opening session of this conference.
Over the past eleven years, ARINC has presented awards in honor of Edwin A. Link to an outstanding member of the simulation community in recognition of their contributions of ideas, leadership and innovation which will benefit the simulation industry. The Edwin A. Link Award has become world-renowned as the simulation industry’s highest award for individual achievement.
Past recipients of this award are:
2010 – Dr. David White, Thales Training and Simulation
2009 – Craig Phillips, Redifun Simulation Inc. (RSI)
2008 – Andy Ramsden, Rockwell Collins
2007 – Joe Biller, L-3 Communications - Link Simulation and Training Division
2005 – Jim Guvernator, Southwest Airlines
2004 – Stuart N. Willmott, CAE SimuFlite
2003 – Dr. John Hunt, General Precision Corporation (formerly Link Aviation, Inc.)
2002 – Kendall W. Neville, The Boeing Company
2001 – Stuart Anderson, Evans & Sutherland 2000 – Joe Depaola, American Airlines 1999 – Wolf-Dieter Hass, Lufthansa Flight Training
The Royal Aeronautical Society’s Edwin A. Link Lectures
The Royal Aeronautical Society established the annual Edwin A. Link Lecture Series in 2007 to honor Edwin A. Link, who is known as the distinguished pioneer of synthetic training. Edwin’s remarkable foresight led to the creation of the Link Trainer, or “Blue Box” as it came to be known, the precursor of today’s powerful synthetic training devices, most notably full flight simulators. The first lecture was presented in London in 2007, the second and third lectures took place at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, in 2008 and 2009.
The fourth lecture recently took place at the Royal Aeronautical Society's headquarters in London on June 10, 2010. Marion Broughton, Vice President Avionics from Thales Training and Simulation, UK, gave a talk entitled, “The Downturn Opportunity in the Flight Simulation Industry?”
The RAeS Flight Simulation group believes the Link Trainer represented a milestone in the history of Flight Simulation. Ed Link is generally recognized as the “father of simulation.”
It is expected that yearly lectures will continue to be held in London and Washington, DC.
Historical Articles Recently Published About Edwin A. Link and the Link Trainer
Two articles, written by Canadians John and Jim Taylor, documenting Edwin A. Link and the Link Trainer were recently published. John and Jim Taylor’s father was the manager of the Link Canadian Manufacturing Company from 1938 until it closed in the early 1950s.
The first article appeared in September 2010 in ThousandIslandsLife.com, an on-line magazine. The article is entitled, Gananoque’s Link to Victory, and may be found at: http://www.thousandislandslife.com/BackIssues/Archive/tabid/393/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/561/Gananoquersquos-Link-to-Victory.aspx
The second article entitled, A Link to Victory, appeared in Vintage Wings of Canada in September 2010. This article may be found at: http://www.vintagewings.ca/page?a=1705&lang=en-CA
We hope that you enjoy learning more about the fascinating and significant accomplishments of Edwin A. Link, our founder.