LAURIE Y. CARRILLO works to support the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory. She conducts research in the area of heat transfer of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR). Specifically, her research involves the investigation of heat transfer in a helicon plasma source. The motivation for this was to provide developmental support of the advanced electric propulsion system known as the VASIMR, a project led by Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz (first Hispanic Male Astronaut). Her work has direct applications to the semiconductor, nanotechnology, and bio-medical industries.

Recently, she has engineered a vacuum upgrade to add to the current design of the plasma rocket technology experiment. This involved detailed calculations, creative designing, understanding of mechanical engineering codes or rules, ability to adapt current ideas to new constraints, and a love for rocket propulsion. More information about the VASIMR rocket can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/support/researching/aspl .

Laurie served as the Development Project Lead for the Space & Life Sciences Astromaterials team and as the Lab Manager for the Advanced Curation Laboratory, a laboratory to study future extraterrestrial samples. She supports the Office of Curation and Acquisition at JSC. Within this office she lead an effort to take the original lunar rock research data and make it available to the public throughout the world via an easily accessible electronic CD format. Laurie has also been involved in projects in the Exploration, Flight Design and Dynamics, and Manufacturing areas of Johnson Space Center. Laurie first came to work at NASA in 1995 through a student internship program sponsored by NASA Headquarters.

Laurie completed her first two years of high school at Robert E. Lee H.S. in San Antonio, Texas. In 1994, Laurie received her high school diploma from the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, a unique residential program for high school-aged Texas students who are gifted in math and science. She received a full scholarship from NASA Headquarters, Rice University, The American Physical Society, and The American Geophysical Society to study at Rice University. While attending Rice University, she attained a B.A. in Mathematics and Computational & Applied Math and a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering in 1998. In 2002, she received her M.E. in Space Operations from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado made possible from the direct support of NASA. With support from NASA, she is currently pursuing her PhD in the Materials and Mechanical Engineering Department of Rice University under advisors: Dr. Yildiz Bayazitoglu, PhD, Dr. Enrique Barrera, PhD, and Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, PhD.