Natalie Panek

Natalie Panek is a Canadian aerospace engineer who works in the robotics and automation division of the space technology company MDA, on Canadian space exploration and robotics. She grew up in Calgary, Alberta, competed in the North American Solar Challenge in 2005, completed a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Calgary in 2007 and a master's in aerospace engineering at the University of Toronto in 2009, and worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in the summer of 2008. She later attended the International Space University at Ames Research Center. She is on the engineering team building the chassis and locomotion systems for the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin Mars rover. Since 2012 she has run a mentorship blog, The Panek Room, offering career advice to girls and linking them with mentors, and she campaigns for greater representation of women in science.