Mamta Patel Nagaraja

Mamta Patel Nagaraja currently works at NASA Headquarters managing the Women@NASA project. This project is a joint effort between NASA and the White House Council on Women and Girls aimed at increasing interest in science, technology, engineering, and math fields among young women. She is the lead writer for the Women@NASA blog and utilizes social media to target the young population. The latest venture for Women@NASA is to create a virtual mentoring program called NASA G.I.R.L.S. (Giving Initiative and Relevance to Learning Science). Previously, Dr. Nagaraja worked at NASA's Johnson Space Center, training astronauts who flew aboard both the U.S. Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Nagaraja also worked in NASA's Mission Control Center as a certified flight controller for the communications system of the ISS. She was recently awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Medal, one of the Agency's top recognitions.

In her personal time, Dr. Nagaraja enjoys performing education outreach activities for students at any level in school and, in her spare time, enjoys reading, blogging, cooking, eating, traveling, taking photographs, and listening to music. She graduated with a bachelor's in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University, a master's in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech and Emory University.