August 25, 2026
By Tracie Troha
Ellen Yi Chen Mazumdar, assistant professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has received a NASA Early Career Faculty (ECF) Award to develop new methods for studying the extreme conditions spacecraft experience during atmospheric entry.
This award is part of NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants Program, which supports groundbreaking projects with the potential to transform space science and technology.
Through the three-year, $750,000 award, Mazumdar and her research team will develop laser-based methods to simultaneously measure temperature, chemical species, gas velocity, and other properties in the gases surrounding heat shield materials.
“We aim to implement our measurement techniques in arc jet or plasma jet facilities, like the ones at NASA, to assist with the evaluation of thermal protection systems for next-generation spacecraft,” Mazumdar said.
The project uses ultrafast lasers, which produce extremely short, high-intensity pulses. These pulses allow researchers to study the behavior of molecules on extremely short timescales and measure properties that can improve understanding of the gases surrounding a spacecraft during atmospheric entry.
Mazumdar said she and her students are excited about this project and hope it will help NASA develop new heat shields for spacecraft traveling to destinations such as Mars, Venus, and Titan.
"As an early-career faculty member, I am excited about the opportunity to develop new measurement techniques that can have an impact on space exploration,” she said. “This collaboration will give us the opportunity to work alongside NASA experts and gain insight into their cutting-edge research and unique testing capabilities."
Mazumdar is one of two Georgia Tech faculty members to receive an ECF award. The other recipient, Glen Chou, assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, received the award for research focused on real-time neural planning and control for autonomous systems.
