Rebecca Masteron, Zeta Mu/MIT, was recently appointed as the the principal research scientist for MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. MIT defines principal research scientists as those who “possess all the qualifications of research scientist, research engineer, or research associate and … have demonstrated the ability to generate and develop concepts independently, and to conduct independent research.”
Rebecca is the first woman appointed to this position in MIT’s 104-year history. She has also worked within MIT’s Space Systems Laboratory since 2012, where she helped develop a device to retrieve a piece of a distant asteroid and return it to Earth. Prior to joining SSL, Rebecca was a senior engineer at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., where she was tasked with flight control design and certification for Space Shuttle/International Space Station mated operations, and mission control support during space shuttle missions.
Rebecca holds a BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering, all from MIT.