H.A. Red Boucher Scholarship

In February, a Bethel student studying Robotic Engineering in Massachusetts was the first recipient of the Red Boucher Scholarship, established by the Alaska Society of Technology in Education and administered by The Alaska Community Foundation.

The Red Boucher Scholarship Fund supports outstanding Alaskan candidates in the pursuit of technology education and/or training to honor H.A. "Red" Boucher.

Red Boucher is recognized at the state and national level as one of the pioneers of the Information Age and as an authority on the subject of computer-mediated communication. He had a long and distinguished career in public service, including holding the elected offices of lieutenant governor and state representative.

The award was on Feb. 23, in the main ballroom of the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, with the recipient, Doug Lucas, accepting it via teleconference from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he attends. The award will be presented during the morning session at the ASTE annual conference.

Lucas, who was raised in Bethel, was inspired to study robotics after representing Alaska at a world robotics competition in his junior and senior years of high school, he said.

"The $1,000 Red Boucher scholarship is the first of many that will be awarded by ASTE in the coming years," said ASTE Past-President Steve Noonkesser, who noted that Boucher, former lieutenant governor and state representative, is well-known as one of the pioneers of the information age and is nationally recognized as an expert on computer-mediated communications.

"We are very grateful to Red for his many contributions to our state and excited to have been able to set up this scholarship in his name. Red has always been a champion of Alaskan students and learning," Noonkesser said.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where Lucas is a freshman, has an active role with the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) outside of Gakona, where studies continue on properties of the aurora borealis' electromagnetic waves in the ionosphere.