Miriam Rauch started out her career as a Physics High School Teacher. She then became a plasma physicist, and is now the President and CEO of Nu-Trek, a company specializing in radiation detectors and radiation sources. Ms. Rauch conceived of the Project, got the funding, and is the Principle Investigator. In her spare time Ms. Rauch creates art in multi-media. She is very excited about the project and is particularly looking forward to working with the students on the exhibit. (B.Sc. Physics)

Barbara Ritchie is currently an Earth Sciences Teacher for 6th grade at Francis Parker middle School. She is also the Middle School Science Department Chair. Ms. Ritchie has won 3 Teacher of the Year awards from Graduate Woman in Science (2001), San Diego Science Educators Association (2000), and Gifted Education, State of Wyoming (1990). She will be providing the leadership in the area of curriculum development and will be responsible for teacher training. (B.Sc. Education, Earth Science/Biology, M.A. Education, Special Ed/Gifted)

Dr. Donn Ritchie has been a professor for Educational Technology for the past 14 years and was the Department Chair at San Diego State University. Prior to that Dr. Ritchie taught earth sciences, physical sciences, and astronomy. Dr. Ritchie will be providing the leadership for the web-based classroom. (Ph.D. Instructional Technology)

Dr. John Rauch is Nu-Trekâs Chief Scientist. He studies and designs radiation detectors and radiation sources. In addition to performing complex computations, Dr. Rauch likes to work with his hands and can build almost anything. He will be advising us on the content to make sure it is accurate and up to date and will be helping the students build their exhibits. (Ph.D. Physical Chemistry)

Dr. Arnold Burger is a Research Professor at Fisk University. He has been involved in the development of detectors for various NASA space missions. The detectors Dr. Burger has been developing look at the x-ray emission of distant stars. In Phase II he will be heading the effort to implement Moon, Mars, and Beyond in Nashville. (Ph.D. Materials Science)

Jiska Budding joined Nu-Trek on a part time basis in order to work on this Project. She is an exchange student from the Netherlands and is doing graduate work in educational technology at SDSU. Ms. Budding has an excellent sense of design and designed this beautiful web site. She will also be working on the WebQuests.

Michelle Degnan is working at Nu-Trek while studying for a Masters degree in public health. She has dual bachelor degree in Biology and Spanish. Ms. Degnan will be helping with the life sciences aspects of the project and be instrumental in communicating with the Spanish speaking students and parents. This is very important, as more than 50% of the Phase I student population is Hispanic.