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One college professor from here in southeast Minnesota is helping conduct research for NASA-- and was just awarded a million-dollar grant to help do it.

It's not every day you see the words 'million dollar grant', 'NASA' and 'Minnesota' all in the same sentence, yet that's what has just happened, thanks to the research and hard work being conducted by a professor at Winona State University.

According to a Winona State release, Dr. Jennifer Anderson is a planetary geologist and professor at WSU. Among other things, she has been doing research in impact cratering at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston (that'd be in Texas, not here in Houston, Minnesota btw.) And, she's just been awarded a $1.1 million grant as a Co-Investigator on a proposal to NASA’s Solar Systems Workings program.

Her work, which was also conducted by undergraduate students at WSU, "focuses on what happens when there are buried rocks and boulders underneath the surface of the moon and how these fragments affect the material ejected during a meteoritic impact," the release said.

Which definitely is impressive. And, even more impressive is that Dr. Anderson's proposal to NASA's highly-competitive Solar Systems Workings program was selected on its first submission, the release noted, when most proposals have to be submitted several times before they might be accepted-- if they're accepted at all.

Dr. Anderson said in the release, "We never expected to be funded in the first year,” and that when the crew at WSU found out their proposal was accepted, Dr. Anderson was "jumping up and down screaming ‘I can’t believe it!’" the released noted. I'll bet! Well done, Dr. Anderson! Impressive job and way to represent Minnesota!

And while most of us (like me, mainly) might be way in over our heads trying to wrap our heads around all the science contained in Dr. Anderson's research proposal, here's something we can all grasp-- if you're here in Bold North, that is. They're the unique things you've probably uttered a time or two-- but only if you're a true Minnesotan. Keep scrolling to check them out.

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SPEAK UP: 10 Unique Things You Only Say If You're In Minnesota

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