In 1998 the assistantship was designated the Hardisty Scholar Program, in honor of late APL research scientist Patricia M. Hardisty, who was instrumental in its establishment. The Laboratory is a perennial favorite field trip destination for students attending the University's annual Math Day. Each March, APL scientists and engineers demonstrate to approximately 100 students the many ways in which math is put to use in a research environment. In 1997, APL was once again a field trip site for the Pacific Science Center's Technology in Education Program for science and math teachers. Approximately twenty teachers spent most of the day at the Laboratory coming up to date on selected research topics such as global climate change and acoustic propagation in the ocean.
Individual staff continue to support teachers in several ways.
Principal Physicist Bob Odom recently made his seventh consecutive annual visit to speak with the physics classes at Blanchet High School. APL has established two fellowships for its own employees. In 1998, Polar Science Center Mathematician Ignatius Rigor was awarded the APL Graduate Fellowship and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Atmospheric Sciences. Anne Clark, Administrator of the Laboratory's Financial Management Group, and the first recipient of the APL Undergraduate Fellowship, received her BA in Business Administration.