 | This is a user sandbox of Brookeblough. You can use it for testing or practicing edits. This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course. To find the right sandbox for your assignment, visit your Dashboard course page and follow the Sandbox Draft link for your assigned article in the My Articles section. |
Naia Butler Craig grew up in Orlando, Florida to two working class parents. She is a first- generation college student, and the first in her family to attend grad school.[1] An 8th grade Earth-Space Honors class is where she was introduced to STEM. This led to her discovery of Aerospace Engineering, where it intersected all of her favorite subjects- science, space, math, and engineering. Shortly after graduating high school, Naia Butler-Craig was offered an internship at NASA, where she discovered her specialty- Electric Propulsion. Naia attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University[2] and graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with a concentration in Astronautics.[2] Currently, she is a second year PhD student[1] studying Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. She works in the High-Power Electric Propulsion Lab.
At age 18, Butler-Craig was accepted for an internship with NASA, with a possibility of future employment. She has worked as a NASA Pathways intern in Science and Space Technology.[1] Currently at Georgia Institute of Technology, she is a GEM Fellow, a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellow, and is involved in the Black Graduate Students Association[2].
As a Pathways Intern at NASA in 2017, Naia Butler-Craig worked on the Albus Cubesat at NASA Glenn Research Center.[2] As part of the same internship in 2018, she was involved in the Sub-Kilowatt Electric Propulsion Project (SKEP).[2] In 2019, she worked for Los Alamos National Laboratories as a Graduate Research Scientist. There, she was involved in a LANL Vector Particle-In-Cell Simulation of Plasma Flow In a Hall Effect Thruster project.[2]
Naia Butler-Craig has contributed to multiple scientific papers. In 2019 she collaborated with a number of other researchers on the paper “Development of a High-Propellant Throughout Small Spacecraft Electric Propulsion System to Enable Lower Cost NASA Science Missions”. This was published during her time working on the Sub-Kilowatt Electric Propulsion Project. Her senior capstone, “CubeSat Payload to Explore the Effects of Space Radiation Exposure on Cell Population Growth” was also published.
In 2018, Naia Butler-Craig was awarded the Region III Executive Board Member of the Year Award from the National Society of Black Engineers.[3] In 2019 she was awarded the Excellence in Academics, Leadership, and Service Award during graduation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, as well as a spot in the Women in Space Science Hall of Fame at the University of Louisville.[3]
Butler-Craig made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2021.[3]
