NASA Selects Students for Europa Clipper Intern Program

NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team for a 10-week program to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa.

to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa.

The program is planned to run every year until Europa Clipper completes its prime mission in 2034 and is open to applications from all U.S. undergraduate STEM majors, with preference given to students from non-high research activity universities and underserved institutions.

ICONS internships may be in-person at the mentor’s institution, virtual, or hybrid, depending on the research project and needs of the mentor and intern. As part of the program, students and mentors will convene for a two-day meeting at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. The first Europa ICONS internship will run Monday, June 3 through Friday, Aug. 9.

The students selected for the Europa ICONS program in 2024 are:

• Sarah Ruetschle, John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio
• Cole Anderson, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Hamza Ouriour, Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
• Ethan Piacenti, Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois
• Jared Bouck, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona
• Kayla Blair, Northern Arizona University
• Carly Davis, McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana
• Matthew Perkins, Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado
• Angela Zhang, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York
• Arianna Rodriguez Ortiz, University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez
• Beverly Malugin Ayala, University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez
• Jeansel Johnson-Ayala, University of Puerto Rico–Rio Piedras
• Akemi Takeuchi, University of Maryland, College Park
• Sofia Merchant-Dest, University of Maryland–University College in Adelphi
• Gradon Robbins, University of Florida in Gainesville
• Jason Sioeng, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
• Tyler Yuen, San Jose State University in San Jose, California
• Dallin Nelson, Southern Utah University in Cedar City
• Eric Stinemetz, University of Houston–Downtown
• Lucas Nerbonne, Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont
• Hope Jerris, Middlebury College
• Jacob Dietrich, Indiana University, Southeast in New Albany
• Jocelyn Mateo, Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio
• Samuel Brown, San Diego Mesa College in San Diego
• Madison Stanford, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
• Bryce McGimsey, Solano Community College in Fairfield, California
• Noah Alayon, CUNY LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York
• Trevor Erwin, University of Texas at Austin
• Ava Frost, Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts
• Brianna Casey, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York
• Fatima Mendoza, Texas Tech University in Lubbock
• Daniel Voyles, Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California
• Swaroop Sathyanarayanan, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta
• Jay Patel, Louisiana State University College of Engineering in Baton Rouge
• Juliane Keiper, Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts
• Emori Long, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee
• Scott Chang, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Hayden Ferrell, Arizona State University in Tempe
• Isabella Musto, Denison University in Granville, Ohio
• Elizabeth Kirby, College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina

The Europa Clipper mission’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

The Europa ICONS program is managed by the Planetary Science Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington and is part of a larger effort known as Clipper Next Gen, a decade-long strategy using the Europa Clipper mission to train and diversify the next generation of planetary scientists.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

For more information on the Europa ICONS program, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/europa-clipper-icons-internships/

Astrobiology,