Graduate Student Fellow Sets Course to NASA

Engineering fellows at the University of Arizona are conducting original research and entering exciting career fields. One AME graduate student is using the opportunity to pursue a longtime dream.

“The recipients of our graduate fellowships are some of the most outstanding applicants to our graduate programs,” said Kelly Simmons-Potter, the college’s associate dean for academic affairs. “The ability to provide research fellowships to these students can be a critical factor that enables them to pursue their graduate educational and research goals, to the benefit of both their careers and the broader fields of engineering.”

Every step PhD student Avery White has taken on her academic journey has propelled her toward a career with NASA.

Drawn to space for as long as she can remember, the Engineering Dean’s Fellow is in her first year as a graduate research assistant with the UA Computational Hypersonics and Nonequilibrium Laboratory, which investigates flow phenomena of hypersonic flight.

“This type of research takes fluid dynamics to the extremes,” said the Tucson native, who is analyzing fluid behavior in flight vehicles such as re-entry space capsules and ramjet engines.

As a UA aerospace engineering undergraduate, White did research for a NASA-funded project in the university’s ASTEROIDS Laboratory, worked as an Arizona Space Grant intern, and interned at Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

“I am constantly learning new things, and the work I do for my lab doesn't feel like work,” said White, who is among five early PhD students receiving annual support from David W. Hahn, the Craige M. Berge Dean of the College of Engineering.

She is grateful not only for the stipend but also for the job and salary that came with the distinction.

“Not having to worry about how I'm going to pay tuition and not having to pick up another job outside of class has taken a huge weight off my shoulders,” she said.