Shooting for the Stars

Julia Cline (’15 PhD, ’11 MS, Aerospace Engineering) says that where she is now was always the goal.

“I’ve loved space since I was young,” she says. “My dad would take me outside to stargaze at night, and that really encouraged my path to NASA my entire life.”

Aerospace engineering wasn’t offered as a degree at her hometown university—the University of Alberta—so she earned a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics there instead. When it came time to find a place to earn her graduate degrees, she says UTA checked the right boxes.

“I loved the campus, the people, and it was a significantly warmer climate than where I lived in Canada,” she says. “My choice was cemented after meeting with Wen Chen, the aerospace engineering graduate advisor at the time. He was very encouraging and welcoming, and made me feel like UTA was the right place for me.

Now a research aerospace engineer at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Dr. Cline is working on projects that focus on in-space assembly of large space structures as well as space nuclear propulsion. She says UTA has played a major role in her professional achievements.

“At times I wanted to quit and just go get a job,” she says, “but the support from the professors and department chair in mechanical and aerospace engineering as well as my family propelled me to keep going.”