Four School of Aerospace Engineering students have been named fellows of the 2022 class of Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program. Carson Coursey, Emma Johnson, Daniel Nwachukwu, Shan Selvamurugan will embark on their summer internships at cutting-edge commercial space companies. 

Now in its fifth year, the program awards exceptional college juniors, seniors, and graduate students pursuing aerospace careers with paid internships and one-on-one mentorships with accomplished members of the space community. The fellows will cap off their summer by attending the summit which gathers the current class of fellows and mentors and features seminars on space start-ups, networking with top industry leaders, and developing entrepreneurial skills.

Carson Coursey

Carson Coursey

AE fourth-year Carson Coursey will intern at the Aerospace Corporation in Crystal City, Virginia, splitting up his time between working in their space systems engineering department and the Center for Space Strategy and Policy. Coursey’s interest in the policy side of commercial space travel and space research allowed him to pair with his mentor, Dr. Scott Pace who’s the current director of the space policy institute at George Washington University and former executive secretary of the National Space Council and associate administrator of NASA. Coursey has held previous internships with Northrop Grumman, the Georgia House of Representatives, and the United States House of Representatives. At these internships, he gained experience both in propulsion and manufacturing engineering and space policy analysis. He is extremely passionate about space debris and space traffic management, and hopes to contribute to solving this problem with his engineering and policy experience in this domain.

“I’m most excited to get to know my fellow MIFP Fellows. We’re all passionate about and interested in commercial space and I’m just really thrilled to get to know a group of people whose interests align so well with mine and who are from all over the place with all sorts of different experiences and background,” said the Georgia native.

Emma Johnson

Emma Johnson

AE fourth year Emma Johnson will spend her summer in San Francisco working with Planet, a satellite imaging company. Johnson jumped at the opportunity for undergraduate research experience at the Aerospace Systems Design Lab (ASDL) and the Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL). She’s also interned at Boeing as a payload interior design engineer working in their New Products Capabilities Department where she created parts to better utilize 3D printing capabilities, highlighted any issues through stress analysis, and fixed issues in an automatic generation code. Through the fellowship she will be mentored by oceanographer and a former NASA astronaut, Kathryn “Kathy” Sullivan.

“I’m really looking forward to the summit and meeting my mentor, she’s such an inspiration and it still feels unreal I get to learn from her,” said Johnson.

Daniel Nwachukwu

Daniel Nwachukwu

First-year master’s student Daniel Nwachukwu will be interning with Nanoracks in Houston, Texas. Nwachukwu heard about MIFP after attending a “Black in AE” event where he reached out to one of the speakers Cadence Payne who turned out to be a 2020 MIFP fellow. After sharing his interest in the space industry with her she encouraged him to apply, and the rest is history. Through the fellowship Nwachukwu will be mentored by Rob Meyerson, founder of Delalune Space and former president of Blue Origin.

“I most excited about connecting with the community of amazing fellows (present and past) who are passionate about the space industry and want to make a positive impact in the world. I'm also really looking forward to working at Nanoracks and contributing to what could someday be the first private space station laboratory,” said Nwachukwu.

Shan Selvamurugan

Shan Selvamurugan

First-year master’s student Shan Selvamurugan will spend his summer at Blue Origin in Kent, Washington. The California native has had previous internship experience with the Aerospace Corporation, Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Firefly Aerospace, and will return to Blue Origin where he previously interned with in the spring of 2021 as an engineering intern. Through the fellowship, Selvamurugan will be mentored by Pete Worden. Worden is currently the chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and previously served as the director of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

“I'm looking forward to attending the MIFP summit, where I can talk to and network with other MIFP Fellows as well as with accomplished leaders and innovators in the space industry. I think it's a great chance for me to gain some insight into some of the more exciting opportunities that exist within the private space sector and what my role in it would look like,” said Selvamurugan

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The Program was founded in 2017 in memory of Matthew Isakowitz (1987–2017)—an engineer, entrepreneur, and extraordinary individual whose passion for commercial space exploration led to great strides in the industry and inspired all who knew him. The Program seeks to instill that same enthusiasm into the next generation of commercial spaceflight leaders by providing impactful career training to those who embody Matthew's drive for exploring our universe to help better humankind.