• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2024

• Princeton University, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, ‘25

• Host Institution: Ball Aerospace

• Mentor: Laura Crabtree

• Brookie Mentor: Rowan Palmer

Meet Zoë Koniaris, a dedicated junior pursuing a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University.

Zoë's passion for engineering ignited during her early school years when she tackled challenges like constructing marshmallow-spaghetti bridges and crafting paper cup windmills. She found her stride in high school engineering classes thanks to incredible teachers, and applied to colleges as an aerospace engineer.

Her journey in aerospace engineering has taken her from Texas to New Jersey to Greece: Zoë has previously served as an intern at NASA SEES at the UT Center for Space Research, contributing to the Mars Exploration Team. She worked on nuclear fusion applications for deep space propulsion at Princeton Satellite Systems. At EMTech Space (a European Space Agency contractor), Zoe did systems engineering for the first-ever Greek space mission.

She believes that the possibility of life on other planets is the most scientifically and philosophically interesting question of our time, and wants to spend her career engineering for space exploration.

Outside of classes, Zoë plays D1 rugby as a front rower on Princeton’s varsity team. She served as team president for two years and is a member of the Varsity Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

In her free time, Zoë enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, scuba diving, snowboarding, and volunteering for local campaigns. While inside, she likes to play the cello, weightlift, read, paint, and cook. Her favorite books are The Martian, Project Hail Mary, and The Case for Mars.

As a 2024 Brooke Owens Fellow, Zoë is thrilled to join Ball Aerospace as a Systems Engineering, Integration & Test intern on the Mission and Space Vehicle team.