Adrian Nat Gentry: Researching Engineering, Career, and Community

Adrian Nat Gentry grew up in southern Indiana and earned their BS in Materials Engineering, where early experiences in co-ops honed their interests in how work-integrated learning programs influence persistence in engineering. This insight sparked their interest in research and so they sought out an undergraduate research position in engineering education. During undergrad, Nat worked on the PRIME grant program, using natural language processing to categorize end-of-course feedback—an experience that revealed a passion for understanding why we do what we do and set them on the path to a PhD.

Since entering the program in 2020, Adrian has earned a master’s in materials engineering along the way and defended their dissertation in 2025. Their dissertation focuses on engineering students’ social capital in work-integrated learning programs, studying how co-ops and internships provide career support, build confidence, and shape professional interests. They pay special attention to nonbinary engineering communities, exploring how students find support both from peers who share their identity and from allies who do not.

Nat has also participated in the TRACER research program in London, studying how integrated engineering programs prepare students with professional skills, alongside NSF-funded research and teaching assistantships that provided hands-on experience in the research process. Beyond academics, Nat emphasizes the importance of community in grad school, noting how support from faculty and peers shapes both personal and professional growth. To Nat, graduate school is “school, a passion project, and a career all together,” and they encourage students to pursue research that truly matters to them. Now, Nat is a postdoctoral researcher studying engineering students' career development and professional skills in workforce development programs.