Mahmooda Sultana is a Bangladeshi-American scientist working for NASA

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

. She leads a team which won a $2 million technology development award for a nanomaterial-based detector platform in 2019. Sultana became a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

research engineer in 2010. She received her PhD in chemical engineering in 2010 from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

and BSc in chemical engineering and mathematics from

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

. She joined

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

in 2010. She has led the development of

graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...

-based detectors at NASA Goddard. Her research interests include graphene,

nanomaterials Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

micro-electro-mechanical systems MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) is the technology of microscopic devices incorporating both electronic and moving parts. MEMS are made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometres in size (i.e., 0.001 to 0.1 mm), and MEMS devices ...

(MEMs) devices, and sensors.

Early life and education

Sultana immigrated to California with her family as a teen. Her work on nano-materials and processes to make detectors and device that could have applications in space. She has expanded her research interests into

quantum dots Quantum dots (QDs) or semiconductor nanocrystals are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size with optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles via quantum mechanical effects. They are a central topic i ...

and

3D printing 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

Awards

She has received numerous awards for her work, including NASA GSFC Innovator of the Year Award, Robert H Goddard Award for technology development work, Group Achievement Award for James Webb Telescope, NASA Early Career Achievement Medal, Internal Research and Development (ISTD) New Achiever Medal,

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

Graduate Research Fellowship, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and WmC and Margaret H. Rousseau Fellowship at MIT.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultana, Mahmooda Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American engineers 21st-century American women engineers American chemical engineers Women chemical engineers American people of Bangladeshi descent NASA people