Faces of NASA
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NASA
NASA Faces of Technology: Meet Lauren Best Ameen
If you tell Lauren Best Ameen something is hard and cannot be done, she will likely reply, “Watch me.” As deputy manager for the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project Office at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ameen and her team look for innovative ways to keep rocket fuel cold for long-duration missions. Work in this area could be important…
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NASA
Laboratory Director Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse
“When I transitioned from Spelman to Georgia Tech, it was probably the first time in my life that I had a professor that made me question if I belonged or had what it takes. Previously, I was always used as an example of how students should study, and now, in my first chemical engineering class, I would raise my hand…
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NASA
Program Executive Dr. Yaítza Luna-Cruz
“My mom had to leave school after 9th grade to support her family, but she always emphasized the importance of education. And with a lot of sacrifices, got us an encyclopedia in Spanish, ‘Enciclopedia de Las Ciencias’. By getting that encyclopedia for us, without knowing it, my mom was my first mentor because she introduced me to science. So that’s…
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NASA
Chief Engineer Dr. Donald Mendoza
“From my earliest childhood, flight had always captivated me. I lived out in the boonies and the farmlands, so I didn’t have neighbors to go and play with. If I wasn’t working, I was left to my own devices, and often, I would just be captivated by the wildlife and in particular, the birds of prey that I would see.…
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NASA
Lead Astromaterial Curation Engineer Salvador Martinez III
“My parents came here from Mexico with the vision of giving us a better life than they had but, times were tough. When I was young, there were many days and nights where we had to get by with what we had. My dad worked his way up in the fabrication industry in Houston and when an opportunity came for…
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NASA
Public Affairs Manager Gary Jordan
“It’s 2 a.m. in the morning on a Sunday. You have your headset in your hand. You’re about to walk into Mission Control. And you understand — in the darkness, the crickets chirping, the lights shining on the building — you understand where you’re going and what you’re a part of. “This is the building where we heard astronauts say,…
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NASA
Systems Engineer Douglas Wong
“When I was around 16 or 17, I came across this book by Arthur C. Clarke called Space Odyssey 2001. That was actually the first science fiction book that I’ve ever read. I was just so captured by what he had written because the things that he wrote about weren’t [happening] in the far-off future, but in the year 2001.…
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Rebekah Hounsell: Tracking Cosmic Light to Untangle the Universe’s Darkest Mysteries
Rebekah Hounsell is an assistant research scientist working on ways to optimize and build infrastructure for future observations made by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The mission will shed light on many astrophysics topics, like dark energy, which are currently shrouded in mystery. Rebekah also works as a support scientist for the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission, helping…
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NASA
Electrical and Mechanical Technician Clifton Brown
“We have a group photo of my first project here, ASTRO-H, and that one means a lot to me because I came [to that NASA project] fresh off the street. I was super scared and intimidated. It was me and three other [technicians], who were also all new, and a handful of very seasoned scientists and engineers. And we came…
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