Tracy Drain

Tracy Drain is a Flight Systems Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs. She is the Deputy Chief Engineer for the JUNO mission, which arrived at Jupiter in June 2016.

Tracy Drain
Official NASA profile photograph, 2008
EducationMechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky
OccupationSystems Engineer
EmployerNASA
Spouse(s)Ted Drain (Married 2003 - present)

Education

Tracy Drain was born in Louisville, Kentucky.[1] She was always curious about space and the formation of our solar system, and decided to study mechanical engineering in 11th Grade whilst at Waggener High School.[2] Drain was a big fan of Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica.[3] Throughout high school she competed in mathematics competitions and insisted on watching space shuttle launches on television.[4] Drain received a bachelor's degree Mechanical Engineering from University of Kentucky in 1998 and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2000.[5] She was the first person in her immediate family to receive a college degree.[6] Whilst studying at university, she spent two summers as an intern for NASA Langley.[7][2] She interviewed for several aerospace companies before settling on JPL, which she chose because she felt "that their mission was my mission: the robotic exploration of space".[2]

Juno in front of Jupiter

Career

Drain joined JPL immediately after graduating in 2000, working on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.[7] After the launch in 2005, Drain was promoted to lead systems engineer.[7] Drain joined the Kepler project in 2007 as the Missions Readiness Lead, hunting for Earth-like planets, staying until Kepler checked-out in 2009.[7] In 2009 she joined Juno, which is studying the gravity and magnetic fields of Jupiter.[1] She is Technical Group Supervisor for the Flight Systems Engineering group.[7] She has worked for NASA for more than 17 years.[6] Drain is now working on the Psyche mission, studying the largest known metal asteroid in our solar system, launching in 2022.[3][8]

Public engagement
Actor William Shatner with Drain at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Tracy Drain is involved with a range of activities to communicate her enthusiasm for engineering with the public.[9] She is an Exchange Consultant for the National Academy of Sciences, a program that connects the entertainment industry with scientists and engineers to create accurate science in both film and TV.[10][3] Drain was a Jury Member for the 2017 Sundance Festival.[11] She has spoken about women in film and engineering alongside Diane Kruger at the Sloan Film Summit.[12] She takes every opportunity to encourage girls and young people into STEM careers.[13][14][15] Drain was involved with the promotion of the 20th Century Fox movie "Hidden Figures", in a series of films entitled "Hidden Figures, Modern Figures", and took part in several panel discussions.[16][17][18] In 2017 Drain gave a TEDx talk at the ArtCentre College of Design, "Beauty of the Fall".[19][20]

Awards

2007 - NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for exceptional performance in the development of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission’s transition to Science Phase Activities[21]

2009 - NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for exceptional achievement in guiding and managing the Kepler Launch, Commissioning and Science Operations readiness effort[22]

2015 - JPL Bruce Murray Award for exceptional support for the education of minority and female STEM students through community programs, distance learning and public events[23]

2015 - Women in Engineering ProActive Network Women in Engineering Champion Award[24]

Personal

Tracy Drain is married to fellow JPL engineer, Ted Drain.[25]

gollark: The bot just uses a somewhat not very good image comparison algorithm.
gollark: > checkmate liberalsTechnically, "fluid" includes gases as well as liquid.
gollark: > why donset is just check the ids of the images<@576874001444503562> the discord message IDs are per MESSAGE, and also this does fuzzy match.
gollark: > wtf is that file extention, guhIt stands for JPEG File Interchange Format and is arguably more accurate than jpeg sometimes.
gollark: Who certifies freaks? Hmm.

References
  1. "Tracy Drain and Danielle Nuding — NASA Engineers — Speaking Today". UKNow. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  2. "JASON Learning | Tracy Drain, Flight Systems Engineer". www.jason.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  3. "Scientist Spotlight: Tracy Drain – Exchange". scienceandentertainmentexchange.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  4. "Tracy Drain | People - NASA Solar System Exploration". NASA Solar System Exploration. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  5. "A Conversation with Tracy Drain: Highlighting Diversity at NASA". www.utdallas.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  6. "EPISODE 1: TRACY DRAIN". NASA. Archived from the original on 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  7. "Tracy Drain Biography" (PDF). University of Washington. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  8. "Psyche". www.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  9. Design Squad Global (2013-06-11), Mission: Solar System - Tracy Drain, Flight Systems Engineer | Design Squad, retrieved 2018-01-11
  10. "About the Program – Exchange". scienceandentertainmentexchange.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  11. Desk, Movies News. "Jury Members Announced for 2017 Sundance Film Festival". Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  12. Film Independent (2017-10-29), Women in Science and Film - Diane Kruger, Tracy Drain, Danijela Cabric | 2017 Sloan Film Summit, retrieved 2018-01-11
  13. "Q&A with Engineer Tracy Drain: Women Leaders of Today by Origin Bank". Plaid for Women. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  14. "Meet Tracy Drain". Black Girl Nerds. 2014-10-20. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  15. "NASA engineer ignites passion for science". www.shine.cn. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  16. 20th Century Fox (2016-11-30), Hidden Figures | Modern Figures: Tracy Drain | 20th Century FOX, retrieved 2018-01-11
  17. ""Hidden Figures" Wins Sloan Science in Cinema Prize". Women and Hollywood. 2016-12-09. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  18. Wood, Beverly J.; Drain, Tracy D.; Mainzer, Amy; Valerino, Powtawche; Schroeder, Allison; Walker, Mandy; LeDoux, Chris; Barron, Craig; Piepol, Diane (2017). "The Academy's Science and Technology Council Presents Hidden Figures in Collaboration with NASA". ACM SIGGRAPH 2017 Panels. SIGGRAPH '17. New York, NY, USA: ACM: 2:1. doi:10.1145/3084847.3110024. ISBN 9781450350105.
  19. TEDxACCD. "Tracy Drain". TEDxACCD 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  20. "TEDxACCD | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  21. "Universe: NASA Honoring Achievement" (PDF). NASA JPL. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  22. "2010 NASA Agency Honor Awards" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  23. "Tracy Drain - Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding & Film Independent". Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding & Film Independent. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  24. "Past Award Winners - Women in Engineering ProActive Network, Inc". www.wepan.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  25. "NASA engineer ignites passion for science". www.shine.cn. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
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