Dr. Anita Sengupta is an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She has been developing entry system and propulsion technologies for Mars, Venus, and deep space missions for the past decade. She is currently the Project Manager for the Cold Atom Laboratory Mission, an ultra-cold quantum gas experiment to be launched to the International Space Station in 2016. She previously was the lead systems engineer for the MSL supersonic parachute, leading the development of a Mars Ascent Vehicle, the principal investigator for the Orion Vehicle Drogue Parachute Subscale Test Program, entry system lead for a Venus lander mission, lead systems engineer for a Mars Sample return mission concept, and Co-Investigator of several plasma propulsion development programs including VHITAL, NEXIS, and Prometheus 1. Prior to joining JPL she worked in industry on the Delta IV Launch Vehicle, X37 Vehicle, Space Shuttle, and Commercial Communication Satellites (XM-radio). She received her PhD and MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California, where she is currently a Research professor in the Astronautics and Space Technology, Viterbi College of Engineering. She received her BS in Aerospace Engineering from Boston University.

Twitter: @Doctor_Astro