SPACE GENERATION ADVISORY COUNCIL
At the Space Generation Advisory Council’s SGx2023 conference, three alumni of the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program delivered talks: Hailu Daniel ('23), Carson Coursey ('22), and Gary Li ('19). Their bios and links to their talks follow:
Hailu Daniel: “Space Fellowship Programs You Need to be Aware of"
Hailu Daniel is an aerospace engineering student at the University of Maryland, College Park, who will graduate in the Spring of 2024. He is actively involved with the Terrapin Rocket Team, a high-power rocketry group that competes in the annual Spaceport America Cup Competition. He now serves as the President. He previously supported the SEDS Chapter at UMD, where he led the Ground Support Equipment Subteam in developing UMD’s first liquid bipropellant rocket engine. In 2021, Hailu was selected to join the inaugural class of the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship program. He interned with ABL Space Systems as a Launch and Test intern. In 2022 Hailu interned with Boeing as a test engineering intern. During the summer of 2023, Hailu Daniel will have the opportunity to intern with Blue Origin in Kent, Washington, as a test engineering intern. He will be located in Kent, Washington. He wishes to inspire the next generation to follow their passion and become the first Ethiopian Astronaut. His passions include Track and Field, hiking, weight lifting, reading, and 3D printing.
Carson Coursey: “Dark and Quiet Skies.”
Carson is an Associate Member of the Technical Staff at The Aerospace Corporation, where he addresses space sustainability through a combination of astrodynamics modeling, statistical analysis, systems engineering, and space policy. Carson has a BS degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech and is a 2022 Matthew Isakowitz Fellow. For fun he enjoys backpacking and reading.
Gary Li: “FedEx in Space”
Dr. Gary Li is the Business Development Manager at Impulse Space, Inc. and is passionate about creating the first commercial highway to Mars and enabling sustainable in-space transportation in the Earth-Moon sphere. In his previous position as a technical advisor at The Aerospace Corporation, he supported the US Space Force on science & technology strategy and mission architectures. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2020 working on electric propulsion and nuclear fusion research, and his B.A. in Astrophysics and Physics from UC Berkeley in 2014. He is a Matthew Isakowitz Fellow, TEDxUCLA Fellow, and science communicator with articles featured in space.com and BusinessInsider.