Sibley School Ph.D. student wins Amelia Earhart Fellowship

Grace Genszler, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering at Cornell, has been selected for a 2023 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. Genszler is one of 30 women across the world to receive one of the $10,000 awards in 2023 and will be presented with a set of wings from the Zonta International Foundation in the fall.

At Cornell, Genszler works with Professor Dmitry Savransky in the Space Imaging and Optical Systems Laboratory. Her research is focused on mission design for direct imaging exoplanet missions with space-based telescope starshade observatories. In 2022 Genszler received a Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship and interned at satellite launch company Virgin Orbit. In the summer of 2023 she interned with Slingshot Aerospace. Genszler has also mentored local high school students enrolled in the New Visions Engineering Program, with an emphasis on helping them through the college application process.

“I’m honored to be selected for this fellowship,” Genszler said. “The list of previous recipients is full of talented women in aerospace--one of whom is on my doctoral committee: Professor Elaine Petro.”