Mallika Misra becomes the 15th Georgia Tech student to receive the prestigious award.
Mallika Misra, a student in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, is among the talented students named to the 2024 Aviation Week Network’s 20 Twenties class. Every year, Aviation Week Network honors 20 students, in their twenties, who are on the course to change the face of aviation, aerospace, or the defense industry.
All 20 Twenties will be celebrated during Aviation Week Network’s annual Laureates Awards and Banquet on March 14 in Washington, D.C.
“Receiving Aviation Week Network’s 20 Twenties award is really empowering, and I am honored to be selected. It validates that I am making the right decisions toward achieving my goals and motivates me to continue working hard to pursue my passions,” shared Misra.
The Florida native grew up traveling a lot and very quickly became fascinated with the idea of flying fast and understanding how airplanes worked. In high school, she attended an Aerospace Career Exploration (ACE) camp at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where she was paired with a flight instructor who flew them in a Cessna 500 along Florida’s Space Coast.
She learned how airplanes fly and handle different flight maneuvers, sparking an interest in one day getting her own private pilot license.
Mallika Misra (BSAE 2022)
“It was a pivotal experience in my decision to transform my love for airplanes into a lifelong career,” said Misra.
In 2022, she completed her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech as a part of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering’s BS/MS program. As an undergraduate student, she was a member of Sigma Gamma Tau honor society and was heavily involved in the Georgia Tech branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), where she served as the chair during her senior year.
Fast forward to today, Misra is a graduate student conducting research in the Aerospace Systems Design Lab (ASDL) where she works with Professor Dimitri Mavris and a team of research engineers on NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Demonstration project, assessing the certification challenges of novel vehicle architectures.
“Mallika has impressed me from the start—both as an undergraduate researcher for the ASDL and in her leadership role with Georgia Tech’s AIAA student branch,” said Mavris, director of ASDL. “I have watched her develop her leadership skills and grow as a researcher as she progressed from an undergraduate to a master’s student. I can think of no one more deserving to join the 20 Twenties 2024 cohort.”
The soon-to-be double Yellow Jacket will be joining the Future Technical Leaders (FTL) program at Northrop Grumman after graduation and hopes to get her private pilot license in the near future.
Previous AE School Aviation Week Network Awardees: Jesudunsin Awodele (2022), Emily Herrmann (2022), Margaret Kilpatrick (2022), Joshua Ingersoll (BSAE 2018) (2022), Oscar Klempay (2021), Rikhi Roy (2021), Vaibhav Kumar (2019), Frank Kozel (2019), Nicholas A. Branch (2018), Kenneth Wayne Smith, Jr. (2018), Braven C Leung (2017), Imon Chakraborty (2016), Nicholas Picon (2014), Kip Hart (2014).
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Aerospace Engineering Students and Alumnus Named Part of the Aviation Week Network’s 20 Twenties
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