One to Watch

One to Watch: Angelo Karavolos

Watching college football must be a complicated endeavor for Crestview resident Angelo Karavolos. After all, which jersey do you wear when you have a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University; master’s degrees from the University of Kentucky, the University of Illinois and Auburn University; and a Ph.D. from the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering in the works?

Fortunately, Karavolos is focusing most of his attention far past any and all goal posts. As the recent recipient of a Florida Space Grant Consortium fellowship, he is currently developing technology for the engineering of spacecraft.

“The ultimate goal is to design something for crew compartments for missions to the moon and Mars,” Karavolos says. Specifically, he hopes to create a type of panel that would comprise the “bulk of a habitat structure” and also serve to monitor and regulate carbon dioxide and resupply oxygen to a NASA crew. (In the photo above, Karavolos holds his prototype of a CO2 Absorption–02 Reclamation System.)

The Florida Space Grant Consortium fellowship, a $20,000 stipend, will fund his research for a year and may be renewed for up to two additional years. The prestigious award is presented to only two Florida doctoral students each year.

“It’s competitive,” Karavolos says. “Each state has its own selectees. NASA funds the fellowship awards, and they put in a proposal for research.”

In addition to this research, Karavolos is completing his Ph.D., which requires him to commute from Crestview to Tallahassee each week. Yet he still finds time to serve with engineering, medical and flight operations in the National Guard, volunteer with the Red Cross and act as a consultant for a small technology company.

“I keep myself busy,” he says. — Jennifer Ewing