Congratulations to Palak Patel, a third year Ph.D. student in the department of Mechanical Engineering, for being awarded the NASA NSTGRO Fellowship. The goal of NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) is to sponsor U.S. citizen and permanent resident graduate students who show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our nation’s science, exploration and economic future. NASA Space Technology Graduate Researchers will perform innovative, space technology research at their respective campuses and at NASA centers. Awards are made in the form of training grants to accredited U.S. universities on behalf of individuals pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees, with the faculty advisor serving as the principal investigator. In addition to their faculty advisor, each student will be matched with a technically relevant and community-engaged NASA subject matter expert, who will serve as the student’s research collaborator. The research collaborator will serve as the conduit into the larger technical community corresponding to the student’s space technology research area. Palak will be researching on nanoengineered ultra high-temperature ceramics for high strength and toughness multifunctional composites with space applications.