Jenna Salmen, a graduate student in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, has been awarded the Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) Outstanding Graduate Student Member award. It is an ascent-level award to honor students and early to mid-career engineers. The award recognizes a SWE member who has made outstanding contributions to SWE, engineering societies, the community, and their campus. She was presented the award in October by the SWE President, Inaas Darrat.

“I've been in official and unofficial SWE leadership positions for a long time and met so many leaders who helped me get where I am, who also give back to SWE. So, for them to say that my service to SWE is so outstanding, that's an honor.”

Salmen has been a part of SWE for a decade, holds national leadership positions, and currently helps run SWE’s Collegiate Leadership Institute (CLI) and GradSWE. She revamped the CLI in 2025 by taking a risk and creating a networking platform to help participants grow closer to their cohort members and build connections that would last for years. Based on exceptional positive feedback, Salmen continues her work for CLI with this year’s new cohorts. 

Additionally, Salmen pioneered the Graduate Student Research Showcase for the GradSWE Affinity Group, where she actively hosts sessions to help students with research resources like finding a thesis topic or an advisor. These were some of the hardest decisions for her when selecting a graduate program, and she recognized the gap in GradSWE support and stepped in to fix it. She is now the professional development chair of the GradSWE Affinity Group. She continues to run the speaker series, where she brings in admissions officers, graduate students, career professionals, and more to talk about applying for graduate school, what research options there are, and other related topics. She also helps students research and prepare for graduate school.

"I had seen many versions of the Collegiate Leadership Institute, so I had a really unique perspective. I offered my leadership and helped to revamp the program. This year, we have more people working on the networking and leadership opportunities, and it has expanded to other SWE programs. I identified opportunities and created leadership positions in GradSWE and CLI that benefited and created opportunities for so many others, and I'm proud of that."

Salmen grew up in Schaumburg, Illinois, near Northrop Grumman, and when she was in fifth grade, they came to her school and hosted an engineering competition, which she won, and solidified her interests in jets and space.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in mechanical and industrial engineering and graduated summa cum laude from Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. She also completed minors in applied computational mathematics, statistics, literature and pre-law. Salmen completed co-ops at Eaton Corporation, Raytheon Missiles and Defense, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Georgia Tech was high on the list when she decided to attend graduate school, and Associate Professor Masatoshi “Toshi” Hirabayashi was a major component of her final decision. He contacted her and discussed his lunar research and his involvement in the NASA VIPER mission.

“When Professor Hirabayashi reached out and told me about the Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) and the NASA VIPER mission, I thought 'that sounds fun’- And it has been. It's been very different from what I did in my undergraduate studies and the industry because I used to be on the quality side of things. Now my research is more on the actual science exploration side of things, which is making me more well-rounded,” said Salmen.

She is currently a research assistant in the SSDL with Hirabayashi. She is conducting moon research, specifically on lunar light scattering. She is developing a computer model replicating and predicting how light scatters off the moon's craters. This research aims to look for permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) and characterize their formation. These PSRs have been shown to have high concentrations of lunar volatiles and water, and these areas are prime candidates for exploration as they are not heated by the sun and lunar volatiles are better preserved in these regions. 

Salmen plans to bring all of her knowledge and energy to Georgia Tech’s Women in Aeronautics and Astronautics (WoAA) and GradSWE. Ultimately, she plans to return to the industry and design spacecraft.