On September 24-27, 2020, the Yale Alumni Association will be celebrating 150 years of women at Yale with an online symposium. Yale Physics is represented by Ariel Ekblaw, the founder and Director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, who graduated with distinction from Yale College with a joint B.S. in Physics and the combined Mathematics and Philosophy degree, and is now completing her Ph.D. in Aerospace Structures in Dr. Joseph Paradiso’s Responsive Environments group at the MIT Media Lab. Ekblaw is one of a vibrant group of women who will be presenting throughout the symposium. She will be presenting a Spotlight Conversation on “Democratizing Access to Space Exploration” on Saturday, September 26.
As part of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative team of over 50 graduate students, staff, and faculty, Ekblaw coordinates space research and launch opportunities across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, and design, and drives collaborations on this work with MIT and space industry partners. Her personal research in aerospace structures explores autonomously self-assembling space architecture for future space tourist habitats and space stations in orbit around the Earth and Mars.
Ekblaw’s previous work experience includes blockchain product development, cloud computing analytics at Microsoft Azure, big data programming at the CERN Particle Physics Laboratory, microgravity research with NASA, and Mars2020 rover hardware systems engineering at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her work has been featured in AIAA, IEEE, WIRED, the BBC, CNN, MIT Technology Review, Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, PRI’s ScienceFriday, and more.
For further information and registration, please see the 150 Years of Women at Yale registration page.
