Charlene Edinboro

Charlene Edinboro

Senior Scientist
Exponent Inc.
BSAAE 1975
MSAAE 1976

 

 

 

 

"The Aeronautics and Astronautics curriculum at Purdue was the perfect foundation for all my careers. This program, which builds on physics, chemistry, and math through to their application to aerodynamics, structures, propulsion and, of course, dynamics and control, provided insight into how all of these components must communicate and work well together. That's the essence of systems engineering, which uses problem solving skills and the application of wide-ranging knowledge to address questions across disciplines."

Charlene Edinboro received a bachelor's and master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue in 1975 and 1976, respectively, before obtaining her doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the University of California, Davis, in 1990. She received a PhD in comparative epidemiology from Purdue in 2002.

Currently, Edinboro works as a multidisciplinary consultant at Exponent Inc. in California, applying her years of experience as an aerospace engineer, veterinarian and epidemiologist. She is also an affiliate of the Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida. Her aerospace engineering career started with summer positions with the U.S. Navy and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and continued with computing and systems engineering roles at JPL, TRW Defense Systems in California, and smaller companies including systems engineering firm Scitor Corp.

During her diverse career, she has received the Oxford Laboratories Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Knowledge Concerning Small Animal Endocrinology from the Society for Comparative Endocrinology in 2005 and is a member of the Phi Zeta Veterinary Medicine Honor Society and Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering honor societies. She also received the NASA Group Achievement awards for the Voyager Spacecraft Design and Development, and Voyager Flight Operations.