Her Story
About Priya
I have been passionate about space since I was young, and I got my first job at an aerospace company when I was in my early career. I am currently finishing my Master's in Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, where I also completed my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. As an aerospace engineer, I have worked at NASA, Blue Origin, Boeing, VAST, and Inversion Space across spacecraft engineering, parachute design systems, and astronaut life support systems. I serve as the Director of Research at Operation Period, a national nonprofit aimed at destigmatizing menstrual health and improving menstrual health education. I have been pursuing bioastronautics and aspiring to become an astronaut for the past 6 years, leading missions on top of volcanoes in isolation, training underwater in some of the same dunkers that Tom Cruise trained in for Top Gun Maverick, experiencing microgravity on parabolic flights, and operating different research payloads. I hold my FAA private pilot license and my advanced scuba diving license from PADI. I have also led international STEM advocacy efforts, teaching aerospace, computer, and electrical engineering to over a thousand students across Afghanistan, Mexico, Canada, India, and the U.S. to help students who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to enter the STEM field. I have built a social media platform, primarily on Instagram, that aims at communicating space and expressing that you don't have to look a certain way or be a certain way to be an engineer - you can be beautiful and fashionable, and be a girl, and still be a very successful engineer, go to space, and do bold things with a kind heart.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Priya
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think my passion for wanting to do something no one has ever done before is what drives me intrinsically, and being able to make an impact on others and inspire. In terms of what has kept me going, and who has been my rock in life, that has definitely been my parents, and my mom, who has taught me how to stay bold and stay brave amongst the numerous failures that have come my way, and taught me how to keep your head up high, and keep trying.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My mentor told me when passion is so deeply rooted, it becomes persistence, and I think that's what I fall back on when things get hard.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be bold, and I would say stay delusional. There are a lot of people who have big, crazy ideas that are often looked down upon, or often shut down, and when I was young, I would go around telling everyone that I want to go to space and be an astronaut, and would often get looks or be asked, like, okay, but what do you actually want to do, or what's your real job? I dreamed it and I'm doing it.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I am focused on life support engineering and designing technology for accessibility of everyone to be able to access space and also bring back technology from space to benefit life on Earth. Space is an extreme environment, and being able to build technologies in the extreme environment without air, water, energy, and the basic necessities - those are all the problems that we face here on Earth with world hunger and water crisis, and energy crisis. So innovating for the depths of space and extreme environments of space, and bringing back that technology to solve problems on Earth, and making sure that we design for accessibility and design as engineers for everyone is something that is important to me, and that I'm working toward in the field.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would say excellence and staying resilient and staying consistent are the values most important to me.
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