Akshata Krishnamurthy

Aerospace engineer and researcher

Akshata Krishnamurthy

Born|  (1990-12-27) December 27, 1990 (age 34)

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Citizenship| Indian
Alma mater| Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D.
Occupations| Engineering career
Discipline| Space Systems
Employer(s)| NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Projects| Mars 2020
NISAR
TESS
ASTERIA
Awards|

* Luigi G. Napolitano Award
* Dr. Robbin Chapman Excellence Through Adversity Award
* IAF Emerging Space Leader

Akshata Krishnamurthy (Born December 27, 1990) is an Indian space systems engineer working as Principal Investigator and Science Phase Lead at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[1][2]

She is currently working on Mars 2020.[3] She was named to Fortune India's "Most Powerful Women"[4]

## Education

[edit]

Krishnamurthy was born December 27, 1990 in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. She completed her schooling and undergraduate education at R.V. College of Engineering before moving to the United States to pursue a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[5]

Krishnamurthy earned her PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[6][7] Her PhD research focused on instrument calibration and performance improvement for space-based telescope missions for exoplanet detection. The results of her research contributed to the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA) missions. Krishnamurthy and her colleagues contributed to the discovery of several exoplanets and the characterization of HD 59640 as an eruptive variable star with flares.[8] Other projects included the Mars 2020 Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE).[9]

At MIT, she was the President of the Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (GA^3) student organization[10] and Co-Chair of the MIT India Conference.[11]

## Career

[edit]

Krishnamurthy interned at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of the ASTERIA mission while working on her PhD. In April 2021, she and her colleagues received the NASA Group Achievement Award for their work with the CubeSat ASTERIA.[12][13] Following graduation, she was employed as a systems engineer and science data system lead at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[14] She also started as a systems engineer on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission[15] and later became the Science Phase Lead.[16]

Krishnamurthy is currently a robotic operations systems engineer working on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission robotic operations and a principal investigator on a strategic university research program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3] She previously served as an instrument engineer on NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and as a co-investigator on ASTERIA missions. She is the first Indian to operate the Perseverance Mars rover.[17]

## Awards and recognition

[edit]

* Luigi G. Napolitano Award from the International Astronautical Federation for contributions to aerospace science (2017)[18]
* Dr. Robbin Chapman Excellence Through Adversity Award from the MIT Office of Graduate Education (2018)[19]
* Amelia Earhart Fellowship by the Zonta International Foundation (July 2018)[20]
* Emerging Space Leader Award by the International Astronautical Federation (September 2018)[21]
* MIT Graduate Woman of Excellence Award (2019)[22]
* Space and Satellite Professionals International's 20 under 35 list of top space professionals (2021)[15][23]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Sharma, Manoj (2 August 2024). "Power lists like Fortune India MPW help shun self-doubt: NASA's Krishnamurthy". Fortune India. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
2. ^ "NASA JPL NISAR Project Team". NASA JPL. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
3. ^ a b "SURP Research" (PDF). SURP Research. NASA. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
4. ^ Sharma, -Manoj. "Akshata Krishnamurthy - Most Powerful Women in 2024 - Fortune India". www.fortuneindia.com. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
5. ^ Krishnamurthy, Akshata (2012). Development and characterization of an inertial electrostatic confinement thruster (M.S. thesis). UIUC. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
6. ^ Krishnamurthy, Akshata (2020). Instrument systematics calibration and performance validation for high precision photometry missions (Ph.D. thesis). MIT. hdl:1721.1/128056. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
7. ^ "Thesis Defense Presented by Akshata Krishnamurthy". MIT. 6 January 2020. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020.
8. ^ Günther, Maximilian N.; Zhan, Zhuchang; Seager, Sara; Rimmer, Paul B.; Ranjan, Sukrit; Stassun, Keivan G.; Oelkers, Ryan J.; Daylan, Tansu; Newton, Elisabeth; Kristiansen, Martti H.; Olah, Katalin; Gillen, Edward; Rappaport, Saul; Ricker, George R.; Vanderspek, Roland K. (20 January 2020). "Stellar Flares from the First TESS Data Release: Exploring a New Sample of M Dwarfs". The Astronomical Journal. 159 (2): 60. arXiv:1901.00443. Bibcode:2020AJ....159...60G. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab5d3a. ISSN 0004-6256.
9. ^ Meyen, Forrest; Krishnamurthy, Akshata; Hoffman, Jeffrey (2018). "System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) of the Mars oxygen ISRU experiment (MOXIE)". 2018 IEEE Aerospace Conference. pp. 1–10\. doi:10.1109/AERO.2018.8396586. ISBN 978-1-5386-2014-4. S2CID 49539396.
10. ^ "Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics". Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (GA3). MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
11. ^ "MIT India Conference". MIT India Conference. MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
12. ^ "NASA Group Achievement Award". NASA Group Achievement Award. NASA. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
13. ^ "ASTERIA Group Achievement Award". NASA Group Achievement Award. JPL. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
14. ^ Mani, Sowmya (13 May 2024). "'How I Got a Job At NASA': Aerospace Engineer Shares 5 Tips to Build a Career in Space". The Better India. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
15. ^ a b "SSPI's 20 under 35 Profile". SSPI's 20 under 35 list. SSPI. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
16. ^ "NISAR Project". NISAR Project. NASA. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
17. ^ "Akshata Krishnamurthy becomes first Indian to operate Mars rover - Know more about her difficult journey". www.livemint.com. Mint. 5 December 2023. ProQuest 2897523609.
18. ^ "Luigi G. Napolitano Award". IAF. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
19. ^ "Robbin Chapman Excellence Through Adversity Award". Robbin Chapman Excellence Through Adversity Award. MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
20. ^ "Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellow". Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (GA3). MIT. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
21. ^ "Emerging Space Leader Award". Emerging Space Leader Award. IAF. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
22. ^ "MIT Graduate Woman of Excellence Award". MIT Graduate Woman of Excellence Award. MIT. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
23. ^ "SSPI's 20 under 35 Media Coverage". Satnews. Retrieved 21 December 2023.

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