Kathleen Howell

Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University

Professor Kathleen Howell is the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, where she maintains an active research program with a focus on orbit mechanics, spacecraft dynamics and trajectory optimization. Professor Howell has made pioneering contributions in celestial mechanics and astrodynamics, and her research has had a major impact on numerous past and ongoing NASA and international space flight missions, including Artemis, Genesis and Cassini.

Her accomplishments have been widely recognized through many awards, including the Dirk Brouwer Award from the American Astronautical Society and Purdue’s 2018 C.T. Sun Excellence in Research Award. She is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and the National Academy of Engineering.

Professor Howell earned her BS degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University and her MS and PhD degrees in aeronautical and astronautical sciences from Stanford University.

Sammie Morris

Professor of Library Science and Head of Archives and Special Collections

University Archivist/Director, Karnes Research Center, Purdue University Libraries

Sammie L. Morris is Professor and Head of Archives and Special Collections at Purdue University. She has a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science concentrating on archival enterprise, from University of Texas at Austin and a BA degree in English Literature from Louisiana Scholars’ College. Morris has published and presented frequently on topics such as archival literacy, leadership, and digitization for archives. She works closely with the Amelia Earhart collections at Purdue, and frequently gives talks on Earhart’s relationship to Purdue University. Her article on Amelia Earhart’s poetry shed light on how Earhart’s creative writing captured aspects of her personality that were often not visible to the public. Morris is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists, Society of American Archivists, and Midwest Archives Conference and is a past president of the Society of American Archivists.

Beth Moses

Chief Astronaut Instructor, Virgin Galactic

Beth Moses is the first female to fly to space on a commercial vehicle and earned her Commercial Astronaut Wings from the Federal Aviation Administration in April 2019. She is the chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic. Moses was formerly the extravehicular system manager for the International Space Station at NASA.

Moses received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue. As a student, she was awarded the National Science Foundation’s Microgravity Research Award to conduct materials research in parabolic flight. She is the recipient of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium annual Women in Space Science Award and a Google Science Fair judge. She was honored as an Outstanding Aerospace Engineer by AAE in 2018.

Honorable Sue C. Payton

President of SCI Aerospace Inc.

Former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force/Acquisition, Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense/Acting Director Defense Research and Engineering, currently President – SCI Aerospace Inc. The Honorable Sue C. Payton – change agent, acquisition expert, innovative industry leader and public servant- has over 37 years of continued success working in senior industry and government positions with military services, defense agencies, coalition partners, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Intelligence Community, Congress, Universities and the media.

During her tenure 17 year with Lockheed Martin, Ms. Payton was responsible for leveraging the latest information technology needs of DOD and Intelligence Community and she resolved complex space system acquisition and technical issues.

In her current role as President, SCI Aerospace, Inc., Ms. Payton advises business executives in areas of financial audit scope and compliance; corporate governance principles and policies; standards of conduct; strategic business planning, including R&D; and game changing technology transition; acquisition and logistics approaches to meet national security needs; resource allocations and operating execution

Ms. Payton has served as a member of the DEFENSEWERX Board of Directors supporting innovation at SOFWerx, the Center for Technology Research and Commercialization supporting USAFA’s CyberWorx initiative and Technology Transfer, Space Dynamics Lab Board of Advisors, and the Purdue University President’s Council. She is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University, University of Southern California and Nova Southeastern University.

Penina Axelrad

Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, University of Colorado Boulder

Dr. Axelrad is the Joseph T. Negler Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she has been a faculty member since 1992 and served as Department Chair from 2012-2017. Her research interests include space situational awareness, technology and algorithms for GPS-based position, navigation, and timing in space, airborne, marine, and land environments, multipath characterization and correction, and remote sensing using GNSS-based reflectometry and radio occultation measurements. Her teaching interests include GNSS, dynamics, and project-based design.

Professor Axelrad is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a Fellow of the Institution of Navigation (ION), and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Additional honors include the Lawrence Sperry Award (1996) from the AIAA, Johannes Kepler Award (2009) from the ION, and the Women In Aerospace Educator Award (2015). She is currently a member of the U.S. Position, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board and the NASA Advisory Council. She received B.S. and M.S. degrees from M.I.T. and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Briony Horgan

Assistant Professor of Planetary Science, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University

Briony Horgan is an Assistant Professor of Planetary Science. Her research program uses data from NASA satellites and rovers, along with lab and field work back on Earth, to understand the surface processes that have shaped Mars and the Moon. She is particularly interested in using mineralogy to investigate weathering and past surface environments on Mars, as well as volcanic, sedimentary, and impact processes on both planets.

Briony is a Participating Scientist on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover mission and a Co-I on NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission, the first step toward Mars Sample Return.

Yen Matsutomi

Blue Engines Sr. Director, Engines Design Office, Blue Origin

Yen is leading the talented Engines Design Office that defines technical processes from concept through flight for engine components to the integrated system to drive positive impact on program performance. This responsibility includes technical process and engineering talent development.

Yen has been with Blue since 2010, spending her early years developing the BE-3 main injector which has flown on all New Shepard missions. As a combustion devices development engineer, she supported subscale injector development testing at WTLS and full scale thrust chamber assembly testing at the NASA Stennis Space Center. Later, she focused on injector and combustion stability verification through full-scale integrated engine development testing, culminating in a successful engine acceptance test program. After multiple New Shepard missions, Yen transitioned to a lead role establishing technical standards, improving processes and advancing analysis tools for injector and combustor development across all Blue engines. Yen was then selected to lead the combustion devices group. She received her Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University. She was also a research scientist at the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories; her specialty and research focus was combustion instability analysis and experimentation in liquid rocket engine combustors.

Moogega Cooper Stricker

Planetary Protection Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Moogega Cooper received a BS in physics from Hampton University in 2006 and a MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in 2009 at age 24. Upon graduating, she became a post-doc at NASA JPL where she worked on assessing microorganisms found in spacecraft assembly cleanrooms. Cooper also worked on technologies, which are able to search for and monitor the persistence of life in extreme environments.

In 2011, she became a full-time employee at JPL where she works on developing plasma sterilization methodologies and additional sterilization capabilities for future mission use. She is also the Planetary Protection lead for the Mars 2020 Mission and is involved with the InSight Mission.

Captain Margie Freeman

Pilot, United Airlines

Captain Margie Freeman is a Boeing 767 pilot for United Airlines based at Chicago O’Hare’s International airport. She has flown for United Airlines for 30 years. Captain Freeman is an Airline Transport rated pilot with FAA type ratings in Boeing-727, 737, 757, and 767 aircraft and flies both internationally and domestically. Margie graduated from the University of Illinois in 1984 from the Professional Pilot Program.

Margie is an active member in the Experimental Aircraft Association, Women in Aviation and the 99’s, organizations that recognize and celebrate women in aviation. She also continues to enjoy general aviation flying her own Cessna 172 and Cessna 340. Beginning her flying in 1980, Margie has over 15,000 flying hours.

Kathryn Johnson

Project Engineer, The Boeing Company

Kathryn is the Project Engineer and Team Lead for the Hornet Health Assessment & Readiness Tool (HhART) development, supporting the BDS F/A-18 Program. HhART is focused on developing capabilities to assess and monitor aircraft system health by using data and engineering knowledge to provide timely, enhanced troubleshooting guidance which will improve aircraft readiness and aircraft safety by reducing maintenance man hours and improving aircraft system health.

Previous to this role, she led the Reliability & Maintainability Engineering team on the F-22 Sustainment Program where she led efforts resolving complex process issues regarding root cause analysis and disposition of corrective action in order to meet reliability, maintainability and system health requirements to improve aircraft fleet readiness. Other previous assignments include Reliability & Maintainability Engineer and Systems Engineer on the F-22 Sustainment Program. In her roles at Boeing, Kathryn has had the opportunity to integrate and lead challenging projects that require a high level of integration and collaboration. During her time at Boeing, Kathryn has earned her certification from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Data Science and Big Data Analytics. Recently, she was selected for the Leadership Next Development Program and will graduate from this program in 2020. Prior to joining Boeing, Kathryn attended Purdue University and earned her degree in Aerospace Engineering.

Jen Watson Perez

Global Technical Capability Development Leader, GE Aviation

Jen Watson Perez is the Global Technical Capability Development Leader at GE Aviation. In this role, Jen is responsible for the technical growth and development of the nearly 8,000 engineers around the globe who work for GE Aviation, including the Edison Engineering Development Program.

Jen joined GE as a co-op while attending Purdue University. Upon graduation, she joined the Edison Engineering Development Program. Jen spent her early career creating aero-thermo cycle models of gas turbine engines. In 2013, Jen became the manager of the Transient Performance team, which created and validated state of the art transient cycle models. This role sparked a passion for developing and training engineers. She brings this passion and an inclusive leadership style to her current role. At GE, Jen is the Inclusion leader for the Chief Engineer’s Office and active in the GLBTA Alliance.

Jen graduated from Purdue with a BSAAE in December of 2003. While at Purdue, she was a member of Phi Sigma Rho, was the co-captain of the national championship Rube Goldberg team, and was director of SEDS Purdue Space Day. She was honored as an Outstanding Engineer by AAE in 2003.

Jen is married to Carlos Perez whom she met at GE while they were co-ops. They have a 4-year-old daughter, Mikayla, who is loves building things, dancing, and painting. Jen enjoys cooking, sewing, traveling, and has a new-found passion for waste-free living. Jen’s preferred pronouns are she/her.

Margaret Wint

Ninety Nines

Bill Crossley

J. William Uhrig and Anastasia Vournas Head of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Professor Crossley took over as head of the school of Aeronautics and Astronautics on July 20th of this year, the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing. He has been at Purdue since 1995, after earning his M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Arizona State University. During his time at Purdue, Prof. Crossley has revamped the sophomore Intro to Aerospace Design class, introduced Design as an undergraduate concentration, and taught graduate courses in multidisciplinary design optimization. His research interests include rotorcraft and aircraft design and optimization. He is a four-time recipient of the Elmer Bruhn Teaching Award, and in 2013 was inducted into the Book of Great Teachers.