Bio

Natalie Panek is a Senior Engineer in System Design at MDA Space, where she has contributed to a number of high-profile space projects including MDA’s satellite servicing initiatives and ESA’s 2022 ExoMars rover program. Her love of exploration led her to obtain a pilot’s license and build and drive a solar powered car across North America. She has participated in an internship at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center and a Space Studies Program based at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Also an avid adventurer, Natalie is the 2013 recipient of the University of Calgary Graduate of the Last Decade Award and the Northern Lights Award Foundation 2013 Rising Star in Aerospace. She joins an elite group of women as one of WXN’s 2014 Top 100 award winners, was named on Forbes 2015 30 under 30, and received the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering Diversity and Equity Alumni Award in 2018. Natalie also received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University in 2019. She is a member of the prestigious Explorer’s Club and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.

Follow Natalie on Twitter @nmpanek.

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