MY MENTOR

DANIEL MUNDEN

Daniel Munden is an aerospace engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He is currently working as a structural analyst on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a project that seeks to explore the origins of the universe and shed light on the effects of dark energy. Previously, he worked at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, also as a structural analyst. His work at Langley spanned several projects and missions including an automated composite-laying robot named ISAAC, the second ascent abort mission for the Orion space capsule (AA-2), and a composite research project aimed at predicting failure in complex materials. Daniel’s engineering work experience also includes positions at Flowserve, Bosch, and the Naval Research Laboratory. Daniel graduated from Virginia Tech in 2017 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and again in 2018 with an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering. His master’s thesis was titled: “Development of a Progressive Failure Model for Notched Woven Composite Laminates”.

In his spare time, Daniel enjoys volunteering with local STEM outreach groups and practicing Turkish. He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and their cat.

I would like to formally thank Mr. Munden for agreeing to mentor me for my last year in high school. Prior to entering the Independent Study and Mentorship program, I was concerned about acquiring a mentor. I knew that finding a mentor working in the field of astronautical engineering who would be willing to mentor me for a period of just under a year would be an arduous task, but with the COVID-19 pandemic it became even more difficult. I look forward to learning all about structural analysis, the field of aerospace engineering, and how to go about achieving my ambition from Mr. Munden!

Despite the presence of the pandemic, Daniel still was willing to mentor me. He has put forth effort, time, and dedication towards fulfilling my interests in structural analysis and other subdisciplines in aerospace engineering, which inspires me to put forth my own best effort in making the mentorship as beneficial as possible to me and him. Perhaps it is redundant to thank him again on the same page, but I hope he can understand my sincerity when I owe him to keeping my passion for aerospace engineering ignited in the last year of high school for me.