Natally Mendez
Natally Mendez is a Rocket Scientist and K-12 STEM outreach coordinator. She was recently Scientist In Residence at the Environment Science Institute at the University of Texas in Austin, where she supervised graduate students for almost 6 years.
In 2018, Natally participated at Cities in Space 2018 by STEAMSPACE Education Outreach as Program Coordinator on Hot Science Cool Talks.
In 2009, Natally Cofounded and was the General Secretary at the Asociación Astronáutica Colombiana (ASTCOL) in Bogotá, Colombia for more than 9 years until 2018. This organization works on STEM activities for K-12 and higher education with a focus on aerospace engineering.
The Colombian Astronautical Association is a nonprofit organization of an academic, scientific, and social nature made up of Colombians inside and outside the national territory. They aim to promote and strengthen spaces for training, research, and development of space sciences in Colombia, focusing efforts on the search and generation of new talents. Follow ASTCOL on Facebook.
This association was initiated by Colombian engineer Marco Pirateque. He reached out to Natally, who at the time was an aerospace engineering student in the US and who had been part of the team that developed the first Colombian satellite called Libertad 1. She proposed to focus on space education based on projects of great impact like those that she has participated in with the USA space agency NASA.
Read Space Education Programm, A Success Story of Educational Innovation in Colombia.
Natally worked as Lead Instructor at Phoenix Arising Aviation Academy in 2014 and 2015, where she guided students in flight simulation and other learning technologies.
Natally earned her Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 2013. She did her Senior Design project for Recurring Supply Transport for Orbital Crew at L4 in 2013.
Between 2004 and 2006, she participated in the design, development, and integration of the first Colombian satellite, Libertad 1 at the Universidad Sergio Arboleda SM.
Read The impacts Colombia will face with the upraise of their first astronaut.
Visit her LinkedIn profile. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.