Shutdown prompts postponement of NASA speaker at Minot State University

The ongoing partial government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, is preventing a NASA scientist and Minot State University alumnus from speaking at her Alma mater later this month.

Dr. Veronica Pinnick, who graduated from Minot State University in 2004 with a degree in Chemistry, was supposed to speak on the MSU campus on Jan. 17 on the topic “Searching for the Fingerprints of Life in our Solar System using Mass Spectrometry.”

However, Pinnick, who’s a research assistant at NASA’s Goodard Space Flight Center, is not allowed to speak on behalf of the center during the shutdown. The speech was supposed to be part of the Minot State Alumni Speaker Series.

After receiving her degree at MSU, Pinnick later earned her Ph.D. at Texas A&M University, and participated in a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, according to the NASA website.

The university says it will update when Pinnick’s speech is rescheduled on its website: www.minotstateu.edu

Veronica Pinnick photo courtesy: nasa.gov

MSU logo courtesy: Minot State University communications