Alex Zderic, a 2011 graduate of Orcas High School was awarded a three-year fellowship from NASA through their NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship.

He will be entering his third year of a five-year Ph.D. program in astrophysics at the University of Colorado Boulder in the fall.

Zderic is the son of Libi Geddes, owner of Springboard in Eastsound and James Zderic of Sonoma, California.