Kara Gaiser 
(she/her)

  • Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2025

  • University of California, Berkeley, Mechanical Engineering, ‘26

  • Host Institution: Vast

  • Mentor: TBD

  • Brookie Mentor: TBD

Kara Gaiser is a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Aerospace Engineering and pursuing two business certificates in Entrepreneurship and Changemaking. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, she developed an early passion for aerospace, from building model rockets in kindergarten to becoming the first female leader of her high school aerospace team, which won the world’s largest rocketry challenge, The American Rocketry Challenge, in 2021.


Despite facing years of limited physical mobility in high school due to multiple surgeries, Kara pursued a four-year research project on Martian life support systems, becoming a two-time International Grand Awardee at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and both presenting and publishing her work at AIAA SciTech conference 2022. Now, she mentors middle and high school students as a competitive science fair coach for ISEF.
Kara’s professional journey began at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a Systems Integration and Test Engineering Intern, where she designed and tested electronics and hardware for missions like Europa Clipper, CRISTAL, Carbon Plume Mapper, and the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. More recently at Vast Space, as a Life Support Systems Engineering Intern, she developed modular airflow test systems for air revitalization hardware and contributed to environmental testing, data analysis, and structural analysis. Kara will return to Vast as a Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2025.


Passionate about fostering inclusivity in aerospace, Kara co-founded UC Berkeley's AIAA student branch and co-leads outreach for the Association of Women in Aerospace. She has shared her many experiences at events hosted by UC Berkeley, University of Washington’s Western Aerospace Scholars, Space Spiels Podcast, Space.com, ABC News, Girl Scouts, and more.
In her free time, Kara enjoys weightlifting, journaling, and exploring Bay Area coffee shops. She plans to pursue a master’s degree and a full-time career in aerospace.