Aerospace engineer on a mission wins prestigious fellowship

As a girl, Emily Gleeson dreamed of being an astronaut. As a woman, she is blazing a trail in aerospace engineering. Her innovative research as a FEAS doctoral candidate recently earned her a 2018 Amelia Earhart Fellowship from the Zonta International Foundation, which advocates for women in science, business and public life. Only 30 women around the world are offered fellowships.

A member of the Ryerson Aerospace Control Systems Research Group (RACS), Gleeson envisions robots working in space without humans operating them. “There is a need to develop technologies so spacecraft can go and assemble themselves, build an international space station closer to the moon or Mars so that once humans do get there something will be set up for them,” Gleeson recently explained to the Ottawa Citizen (external link) .

Through her Space Broaddity (external link)  website, Gleeson is also on a mission to empower the next generation of women in STEM and drive gender equality in the workplace. “We need more female engineers because we need different perspectives,” she shared with WeMadeIt (external link) . As an Amelia Earhart Fellow, Gleeson is a pioneer herself for girls and women in engineering.