About SOAR

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Summer Opportunity in AeRonautics for High School Scholars (SOAR) is a new NASA national summer aeronautics enrichment program for high school juniors and seniors.  The program is designed to engage students across the United States in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program that focuses on aeronautics to encourage their pursuit of various educational disciplines critical to NASA’s future missions.  To be considered, students must be a U.S. citizen, be in 11^th or 12^th grade at the time of application, and have at least a 3.0 overall unweighted grade point average (GPA) on a 4.0 scale.

Program Description:   

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SOAR’s main objectives are to:  

1) contribute to the development of America’s STEM workforce of the future and

2) engage students and their families through hands-on, interactive, aeronautics-related educational activities to increase their science and technology literacy.  The program features interactive aeronautics activities, aeronautics design projects, flight simulation software, RC model-aircraft demonstrations, model rocketry, scientific ballooning, wind tunnel testing, tours, and many other activities. 

Dr. Gregory V. Selby’s Biographical Sketch

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Dr. Gregory V. Selby, the  SOAR Director, is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.  He received B. S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering (1971) and Psychology (1990) from the University of Virginia and Old Dominion University, respectively.  He also received M.S. (1979) and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Science from the University of Delaware from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.  After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he worked as an aerospace engineer at three NASA installations for a total of 12 years:  NASA Goddard Research Center, Wallop Flight Facility (Virginia), NASA Glenn Research Center (Ohio), and NASA Langley Research Center (Virginia).  Dr. Selby has taught the following courses at the university level since 1982:  Introduction to Engineering, Statics, Engineering Mathematics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Thermodynamics, Gas Dynamics, Conduction Heat Transfer, Advanced Fluid Mechanics, and Boundary-Layer Theory.  His research involves computational and experimental fluid mechanics with primary emphasis on flow control.  He is the author of numerous technical papers, has received several technical awards, and has served as the principal investigator on sponsored educational and research projects with award totaling approximately $1.5 million.  Dr. Selby is the husband of Barbara and the father of three sons – Gregory II, Gevell, and Gerron.