Arunima Prakash, an aerospace PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder, is studying polar mesospheric clouds - Earth’s highest clouds and their relation to the Sun and the polar vortex effects under Xinzhao Chu at the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU Boulder. At McMurdo, Arunima will be training and learning lidar operations to lead the next winter season in 2023. She recently was recognized at the 2022 International Laser Radar Conference for best student oral presentation and won second place in the student poster competition at the Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions Program workshop in June. Arunima will soon be publishing the presented results in her journal paper.