Julie Wertz Chen

Julie Wertz Chen is an American aerospace engineer. She has been a systems engineer for the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), Cassini, and InSight Mars missions. She is currently working on the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission.[1][2][3][4]

Julie Wertz Chen
EducationS.B., S.M, Ph.D. of Aeronautics & Astronautics
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
SpouseAl Chen
Scientific career
Thesis“Expected productivity-based risk analysis in conceptual design : with application to the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer mission” (2006)
Doctoral advisorDave Miller
Engineering career
DisciplineSystems Engineering
Employer(s)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
ProjectsInSight

Education

At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wertz Chen was on a coxswain on the varsity rowing team.[5][6] She was involved in Sigma Gamma Tau [7] and Tau Beta Pi.[8] As a senior, she worked on the Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) project for the "Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate" Capstone course.[9]

In graduate school, she was in the Space Systems Laboratory (MIT) with Professor Dave Miller. She researched design consideration of the probability of failure in the design of spacecraft for her doctoral thesis.

Work at NASA

Wertz Chen has worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California for her entire career. She has been the Fault Protection Verification and Validation lead for the SMAP mission, as well as a fault protection engineer on both the SMAP and Cassini missions.[9] She was the team's systems engineer as well as the project verification and validation (V&V) lead engineer on the NASA InSight mission.[10][11][12]

She is currently on the Project Systems Engineering Team for the SWOT project.[9]

Personal life

Wertz Chen is married to NASA JPL systems engineer Al Chen.[13] They met at MIT and were both in the SPHERES Capstone class.[14] Al Chen was on the Mars Science Laboratory landing team and sat in the same front row seat that she did for InSight landing team.[15]

References
  1. "Julie Wertz-Chen". C-SPAN. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  2. "Mission To Mars". Rolling Stone. 1 March 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  3. "Landing on Mars is harder than you think. Here's how NASA prepares". National Geographic. 21 November 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  4. "InSight: Nasa's Mars mission on target for landing". BBC. 21 November 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  5. "1997 MIT Crew Novice Women Racing Results". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  6. "Varsity Heavyweights Crews Dominate N.H. Championship". The Tech. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 17 October 1997. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  7. "Fall 1998 Edition Credits for Uncle Walter's Guide to Aeronautics and Astronautics". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  8. "Tau Beta Pi" (PDF). The Tech. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 19 March 1999. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  9. "Zero Robotics 2016 High School Championship Tournament" (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 27 January 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  10. "Insights on NASA's Mars InSight from Alumni on the Front Lines". Slice of MIT. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 13 December 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  11. "Inside InSight: Engineer Helps Land a Spacecraft on Mars". Mars Exploration Program. NASA. 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  12. "NASA Previews InSight Mars Landing". Mars Exploration Program. NASA. 25 November 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  13. "Meet the People Behind NASA's Perseverance Rover". Mars Exploration Program. NASA. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  14. "Julie Wertz Chen and Al Chen Love Story". Instagram. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  15. "Allen Chen Biography". Mars Exploration Program. NASA. Archived from the original on 2019-07-26. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
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