• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2021

• Princeton University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, ‘23

• Host Institution: Boeing

• Mentor: Chris DeMay

• Brookie Mentor: Skylar Eiskowitz

Kristen Ahner is a junior studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and pursuing a certificate in Robotics and Intelligent Systems. In lieu of online classes, she is currently on a leave of absence working as a Modeling and Simulation Co-op at Radiance Technologies in her hometown of Dayton, OH.

Kristen grew up all over the U.S., moving around during her father’s active duty Army career. Her experiences at various military bases are what first sparked her interest in the defense industry. While she always loved math and science, she didn’t settle on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering until she took differential equations her freshman year. Seeing how math could be applied to interesting physical problems in the air and space domains pushed her to declare her major, and her interest in aerospace grew as she spent two summers working at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Through her work with AFIT and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Kristen gained a deeper understanding of the Air Force’s technical goals; in her current role with Radiance Technologies, she analyzes the effects of developing game-changing technologies in support of the warfighter.

At Princeton, Kristen serves as the Technical Team Lead of the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Perú Team. After her freshman year, she spent five weeks in the rural Andean community of Pusunchás completing the construction of a small-scale gravity-fed potable water system. She is passionate about engineering in service and believes all young girls should have access to female engineering role models. To support this belief, she volunteers at annual Society of Women Engineers (SWE) events that introduce high school girls to engineering. Outside of engineering, Kristen plays for the Princeton Women’s Rugby team as a centre, so she’s ready to tackle any challenges that come her way.

As a 2021 Brooke Owens Fellow, Kristen is thrilled to be joining Boeing’s Space and Launch division.