Hi! My name is Annika, and I’m an engineer, storyteller, and passionate advocate for gender minorities in STEM. I am currently the VP of engineering at Aurelia Institute, a non-profit space architecture R&D lab, education and outreach center, and policy hub dedicated to building humanity’s future in space.
I got my start studying aeronautical and astronautical at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where I also minored in creative writing and literature while rowing at the Division I level. During my undergraduate summers, I interned at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where I worked on early project formulation with Team X and operations for the Juno Spacecraft, as well as Aurora Flight Sciences, where I spent time construction multidisciplinary design optimization scripts for next-generation aircraft design.
After graduating from MIT, I started graduate school at CU Boulder, where my research focused on creating methods to assess emerging technology for use in deep space habitats through the NASA HOME (Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration) Space Technology Research Institute. In 2019, I was selected as a Matthew Isakowitz Fellow, through which I worked as a guidance, navigation, and control engineer at Blue Origin. In 2020, I was also selected as one of 35 Amelia Earhart Fellows worldwide, and in 2021, began work part-time with BryceTech as an engineering consulting, creating market forecasts and competitive assessments for clients in the aerospace sector. Throughout grad school, I also served as the president of the AIAA Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics, an an international initiative to support and empower marginalized genders in the aeronautic and astronautic fields.
In 2023, I defended my PhD and moved to Boston to start full-time at Aurelia. Currently, I lead space habitat research and technology development across the institute. In my free time, I’m an trail runner, writer, and reader of all things fantasy and science fiction.