Zonta International awards promising women aerospace researchers with 2021 Amelia Earhart Fellowship

Zonta International is pleased to announce the Amelia Earhart Fellows of 2021. These 36 exceptional women are from 22 countries and studying fields such as aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineering, planetary science, applied mathematics, astrophysics instrumentation and more.

We are excited to welcome them into our community of Amelia Earhart (AE) Fellows and look forward to following their contributions to the fields of aerospace engineering and space sciences.

This year, Zonta International was able to award 36 fellowships, instead of the usual 35 fellowships, thanks to a generous contribution from members of Zonta District 9 and the Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley, California, to the AE Fellowship Fund in honor of Zonta International President Sharon Langenbeck, a two-time Amelia Earhart Fellow herself.

Elena Sorina Lupu, a student in aerospace engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), is the recipient of the AE Fellowship in honor of Sharon Langenbeck. After the AE Fellowship Committee selected the 36 Fellows for 2021, Sorina was chosen for this added recognition because of her and Sharon’s shared background in aerospace engineering and her studies at Caltech, in Sharon’s home state of California. Sharon will present the AE Fellowship wings pin and certificate to Sorina at a special award ceremony to take place at a later date.

The AE Fellowship enables talented women from around the world, who are pursuing doctorate degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences, to invest in state-of-the-art equipment to conduct their research, present their research at international conferences and participate in specialized studies. The fellowship is highly sought by women from all around the world. This year, we received 183 applications.

Since 1938, Zonta has awarded 1,674 AE Fellowships, totaling more than US$11 million, to 1,245 women from 75 countries. Throughout its history, Zonta has awarded more than 3,000 educational fellowships, scholarships and awards through donations made to the Zonta Foundation for Women. Click here to read more.

3 JUNE 2021

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