NASA Glenn Academy 2006

NASA Academy 2006
Glenn Research Center
2006 GRC Academy Home

Kelly N. Perry

Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR

Chemical Engineering
Bachelor of Science, June 2007

NASA Academy Research Project

Low Gravity Cryogenic Mass Propellant Gauging
NASA Principal Investigator: Dr. Neil Van Dresar

Education

I just finished my third year studying Chemical Engineering at Oregon State University. After I earn my Bachelors degree, I hope to pursue a PhD in Chemical Engineering. I fell in love with Chemical Engineering from the moment I chose the major. Since my freshman year, it has been my dream to become a NASA engineer.

Experience

I have been lucky enough to be a member of the Oregon State University NASA Microgravity Flight Team for two years, now. My sophomore year, I worked on the experimental design portion of a proposal and this year I was recruited to participate as Team Leader of a new team. The experience taught me a lot about innovative thinking in space-related research fields.

In addition to my participation in the Microgravity Flight Team, I have had two summer internships. My freshman year, I worked at the Oregon Medical Laser Center in Portland, OR. I learned how to optimize the purification of tropoelastin, which is used in the Chitosan bandages OMLC produces. My sophomore year, I worked at Synthetech in Albany, OR. At Synthetech, I learned to optimize yield on scaled down version of batch reactions.

Extra-Curricular Activities

I have volunteered for the SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) program at Mt. View Elementary in Corvallis, OR. SMART is a program which encourages children to read by providing books and adults (I guess that’s me) who will read to them. I had so much fun reading to the kids at Mt. View. I can’t wait until the program starts up again in September!

I love to travel, and I have been fortunate enough to have many opportunities to do so. In addition to traveling all over the US, I have visited other countries. The summer of my junior year in high school, I spent one month in Europe with a friend of mine who was a foreign exchange student. I was able to live with her family for two weeks in Berlin, Germany and tag along on their vacation to Crete, Greece. Last summer, I was able to go back over to Europe and visit London, England; Newbury, England; Florence, Italy; and Rome, Italy. I have also been to Cancun, Mexico; Cozumel, Mexico; and Victoria, Canada.

I am also deeply passionate about music. I come from a family of natural musicians. Unfortunately, I was not granted the talent of being able to create music, but I did manage to develop an appreciation for it.