• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2024

• Columbia University, Mechanical Engineering, ‘25

• Host Institution: Joby Aviation

• Mentor: Jennifer Young

• Brookie Mentor: Mich Lin

Minju O’Rourke is a junior at Columbia University, studying Mechanical Engineering.

She is the Co-President of the Columbia Space Initiative, whose 11 projects span hybrid rocketry, cube satellites, space microbiology research, educational outreach curricula, and much more. As CSI Co-President, her team hosted 3 NASA astronauts to Columbia’s campus, and organized a live call with the International Space Station.

Minju spent her first year at Columbia designing an astronaut tool for NASA’s MicroG NExT Challenge, which was selected to be tested in the Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab. She’s now leading an interdisciplinary team of students to build an autonomous vehicle that will monitor algae blooms in New York City parks.

A sustainable transportation advocate, Minju became captivated by the race to decarbonize aviation while working as a high school intern in NASA Ames’ Aviation Systems Division. Minju loves low-carbon vehicles of all kinds—from bikes, to eVTOLs, to ammonia ships—and is excited to help Joby make zero-carbon aviation a reality.