URSI selects winners of this award once per three years, in conjunction with its General Assemblies, which this year will be held August 19-26 in Montreal, Canada. Winners of this award must be under 35 and presenting a paper at the assembly. It is a very competitive selection process, and Higginson-Rollins was one of only 16 winners from the USA. He is a member of the LF Radio Lab, where he is advised by ECE Assistant Professor Morris B. Cohen.

URSI covers a wide range of electromagnetic and radio applications, with 10 commissions covering theoretical electromagnetics, antennas and communications, interference, remote sensing of the atmosphere and space environment, radio astronomy, and biological applications.

Higginson-Rollins’ work focuses on using Low Frequency radio beacons, near 300 kHz, to directly probe and characterize the lower ionosphere (60-100 km altitude). This ionized plasma region, at the border between earth’s atmosphere and the space environment, is otherwise difficult to monitor due to being too low for satellites and too high for balloons. Nonetheless, the impacts on long-range radars, communications, navigation, and geophysical remote sensing necessitate understanding its dynamics better.

Higginson-Rollins’ work will be funded by the National Science Foundation CAREER Award received by Cohen and the LF Radio Lab and by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which Higginson-Rollins won.