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January 14, 2019

Alumna recognized as aerospace rising star with 20 Twenties award

Written By: Adam Malecek

Emily Jewell has received a prestigious 2019 20 Twenties award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Aviation Week Network.

 Emily Jewell
Emily Jewell

The awards program, “Tomorrow’s Technology Leaders: The 20 Twenties,” recognizes students earning STEM degrees who are nominated by their universities on the basis of their academic performance, civic contribution and research or design project. It was established in 2013 to recognize and cultivate the next generation of aerospace and defense leaders.

The 20 award recipients selected in 2019 were chosen from a group of qualified nominees from 42 different universities representing nine countries.

Jewell graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2018 with bachelor’s degrees in engineering mechanics and mathematics.

“I feel extremely humbled and grateful to win this award,” she says. “I knew I would be up against some stiff international competition, and my receipt of this award is not without much support and guidance from various professors and engineers in my life, especially those in the engineering physics department at UW-Madison.”

She is currently a graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.

“Being named one of AIAA’s 20 Twenties affords me an amazing launching pad for my dreams, namely to continue pioneering research in computational aerosciences and to lead in the commercial space industry,” she says.

At UW-Madison, Jewell was heavily involved with research in Engineering Physics Associate Professor Matt Allen’s structural dynamics research group. In addition, she was an officer for Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, a STEM outreach volunteer, and a member of the nationally competitive UW women’s club ultimate frisbee team. During her time at UW-Madison, Jewell garnered a number of academic awards, including the esteemed Barry Goldwater Scholarship in 2017 for undergraduate excellence in the sciences.

She says UW-Madison played a crucial role in her success by offering an intellectually stimulating environment that allowed her to thrive and achieve ambitious goals.

“From the second I stepped on campus at UW-Madison, I knew that I would be able to pen an amazing life for myself,” she says. “This was because of the myriad opportunities the university offers and the amazingly supportive networks and communities I found within the College of Engineering and beyond, including with my fellow EM/EMA students.”


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