We are excited to have Dr. Soyeon Yi virtually on May 13th! This event is in collaboration with AIAA, WIS, VRS, KSA and PSAS.

Dr.  Soyeon  Yi is  South  Korea’s first and only astronaut.  She was selected as an astronaut in December 2006, out of 36,000 contestants vying for the title of South Korea’s First Astronaut. On April 8, 2008, she launched into space on-board Soyuz TMA-12. During her 11-day mission at the International Space Station (ISS), Dr. Yi completed an aggressive number of experiments contributing to South Korea’s science textbooks and science channel television lectures.  During her historical return to earth on  April  19,  2008,  she survived a force of nearly  16-G (versus  4-G  average)  upon the ballistic re-entry.  Due to re-entry complications, the first to welcome her return to earth were nomads in the plains of Kazakhstan. 

Dr. Yi received her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Master of  Science in  Mechanical  Engineering, and her  Ph.D.  in  Bio and  Brain Engineering from  KAIST  (Korea  Advanced  Institute of  Science and Technology). Her Ph.D. thesis is “DNA Separation Chips Using Temporal Asymmetric Ratchet Effect in NonUniform E-Fields”.  In May 2014, Dr. Yi received her MBA with emphasis on Technology and Global Leadership at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Currently, Dr. Yi is working with Biotechnology startup, Noul Co., Ltd. as the Managing Director, Business Development and Partnership. 

Dr. Yi is passionate about nurturing the next generation of leaders in STEM; she is not only volunteering for various non-profits as an inspiring speaker but also lecturing at the University of Washington and local community colleges.  When she can find spare time,  she enjoys singing,  hot yoga, gardening, crafts, camping, and hiking.

We are excited to have Nagin Cox virtually on February 25th! This event is in collaboration with AIAA, WIS, SWE, VRS, SHPE, and MENASA Program Initiative.

Nagin has been exploring since she decided as a teenager that she wanted to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was born in Bangalore, India, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Nagin has held leadership and system engineering positions on interplanetary robotic missions including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Kepler exoplanet hunter, InSight, the Mars Curiosity Rover and now the 2020 Perseverance Rover. She was also involved in the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) team which will prototype making oxygen on Mars from the Martian atmosphere. She is currently a Tactical Mission Lead on the Mars Curiosity Rover as well as the Mars2020 Perseverance Rover.

Nagin is honored to be the namesake for Asteroid 14061. She has also received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals. She is a U.S. Department of State’s STEM Speaker and has spoken to audiences around the US, Canada, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and South Asia on the stories of the people behind the missions. Her lecture on Mars Time on the TED Talk website has been viewed more than two million times (https://www.ted.com/talks/nagin_cox_what_time_is_it_on_mars).

Before her time at JPL, she served in the US Air Force including duty as a Space Operations Officer at NORAD/US Space Command. Nagin holds engineering degrees from Cornell University and the Air Force Institute of Technology as well as a psychology degree from Cornell.

She is a past member of Cornell University’s President’s Council for Cornell Women and has served on the Boards of the Griffith Observatory Foundation and Impact Personal Safety: Self-Defense & Empowerment for Women.  She sits on the Advisory Committee for the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and is part of the Advisory Council for the Planetary Society.