UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Maggie Nunn, a doctoral candidate studying mechanical engineering at Penn State, was recently awarded the Amelia Earhart Fellowship. The fellowship is annually awarded to up to 30 women pursuing doctorates in the fields of aerospace engineering and space sciences, with recipients each receiving $10,000.
“When I found out I had been selected for the Amelia Earhart Fellowship, I was filled with excitement and felt truly honored,” Nunn said. “The fact that I am a part of the community of amazing women who have received this award means so much to me.”
The Amelia Earhart Fellowship is an initiative started by Zonta International, an international foundation dedicated to supporting and uplifting women through advocacy, partnerships and volunteer work. Since its establishment in 1938, Zonta has awarded 1,764 fellowships to more than 1,300 women around the world, totaling almost $12 million of funding, according to their website.
Nunn completed her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a Penn State doctoral student, she conducts research in the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) Lab under the mentorship of Reid Berdanier, associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the START Lab.
“In just the second year of her doctorate program, Maggie has already made several important contributions to research in the START Lab,” Berdanier said. “She is a leader of multiple new instrumentation development programs supporting industry- and government-sponsored research. Maggie demonstrates an innate curiosity to dig into technical challenges, scope unique research questions and persevere through adversity.”
Nunn’s research focuses on developing sustainable propulsion and power generation technologies through the use of turbines. According to her, gas turbines are essential in the operation of various vehicles and power generation systems, including jet engines. The turbines operate in extremely high-temperature environments, often exceeding the melting point of the hardware, meaning they require sophisticated internal and external cooling methods to function properly.
“There’s a really delicate trade-off between ensuring the durability and safety of the turbine components and trying to minimize the energy used for cooling,” Nunn said. “My work at the START Lab optimizes this balance by operating a high-speed turbine rig under a variety of conditions. By having a better understanding of turbine cooling performance, we can create more efficient and sustainable turbine designs.”
Nunn said that understanding turbine performance involves collecting and measuring temperatures and pressure data during operation through the use of probes. The probes, which are later analyzed to reveal inefficiencies in turbine operation and cooling, capture detailed thermal and aerodynamic information to help researchers improve the design of turbines.