When I Grow Up, I Want To Be...

Rachel Ellman visiting
the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory
Class of 2007

I did my internship with NSBRI the summer after I graduated college because I was having a bit of a quarter-life crisis. I could not decide what I wanted to do with my life – go to graduate school? Medical school? Industry? I knew that I loved space and medicine and wanted to pursue a career that meshed the two. Then, I stumbled on the perfect way to test the waters of Johnson Space Center (JSC) – through the NSBRI Summer Internship.

And I had a blast! My work in the Anthropometry & Biomechanics Facility with Dr. Sudhakar Rajulu was stimulating and challenging. The twice-weekly lecture presentations by JSC scientists was one of the highlights for me. I was able to learn in that one, short summer broadly what everyone was working on in a range of fields from nutrition to radiation to bone. There was never a shortage of tours and talks that allowed us to explore JSC and meet heroes like Gene Kranz and active astronauts. Not to mention the tons of other students that descend on JSC for the summer, with whom there’s plenty of time to explore Houston.

It is largely because of that internship that I am now in my third year of a Ph.D. in the NSBRI-funded Bioastronautics Program within the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology… and I couldn’t be happier. I was so excited by everything that was going on at JSC that I knew I had to make bioastronautics-related research a priority in my career path. Currently, I am investigating the effects of partial gravity on bone and muscle in a mouse model. 

I definitely recommend applying for the internship because it’s a great way to experience JSC, and a rare opportunity to work alongside NASA scientists and make a contribution to the field!