• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2021

• Stanford University, M.S. Materials Science and Engineering, ‘24

• Stanford University, B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, ‘23

• Host Institution: SpaceX

• Mentor: Wes Harris

• Brookie Mentor: Golda Nguyen

TaNia Donatto is from Southeast Texas, completing her bachelor's and coterminal master's degrees at Stanford University in Materials Science and Engineering, with the goal of focusing on aerospace industry applications in research & development or design. Her fascination with space started at a young age -- fostered by family trips to Space Center Houston and getting a closer look at the night sky. She has completed two internships with SpaceX's Materials Engineering - Polymers team and will be interning with the Suits and Crew Equipment team in Summer 2023.

At Stanford, TaNia has co-led the Satellites-Structures team as part of the Stanford Student Space Initiative (SSI) where she played an important role in the early development of the team's Sapling CubeSat project launched in January 2023. Additionally, she was a co-lead for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team and was a part of outreach for SSI’s Mars Bricks team, who sent their experimental payload to the International Space Station for the NASA Student Payload Opportunity with Citizen Science (SPOCS) competition.

The summer before her sophomore year, TaNia became an undergraduate researcher in Stanford’s EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory (XLab). Her research examines the electrical properties of materials, specifically graphene aerogel, synthesized in a microgravity environment. As the project outreach lead, TaNia has worked with Scientific Adventures for Girls (SAfG) and the Chabot Space and Science Center in order to communicate her research to a young audience.

In addition to space-related activities, TaNia is a part of the Stanford Axe Committee, Black Recruitment and Orientation Committee’s Big Sib/Lil’ Sib Program, has danced to a sold out audience with the Chocolate Heads Movement Band, and performed with Drum Corps International in the color guard. Outside of Stanford, she has served as a mentor for The Champion Project, supporting minority and first-generation/low-income students through the college admission process. TaNia also loves to write and perform poetry and has multiple publications online and in print.