The Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

program in the United States that provided paid

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

s and executive mentorship to exceptional

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

and graduate students seeking careers in commercial space for nearly a decade. The fellowship was created in memory of Matthew Isakowitz, an American

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

and early contributor to the field of commercial spaceflight who died at the age of 29.

Motivation and overview

The Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program connected exceptional students with the resources to become leaders in the commercial space industry, with the goal of bolstering the then-fledgling industry and fostering excitement for commercial spaceflight in young engineers. Matthew Isakowitz was an aerospace engineer from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

who worked at

XPRIZE XPRIZE Foundation is a non-profit organization that designs and hosts public competitions intended to encourage technological development. The XPRIZE mission is to bring about "radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity" through incentiv ...

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

, and

Astranis Astranis Space Technologies Corp. is an American company specializing in geostationary communications satellites. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. In 2018, Astranis launched DemoSat-2, a prototype 3U CubeSat. The launch aimed t ...

, and served as associate director of the

Commercial Spaceflight Federation The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is a private spaceflight industry group, incorporated as an industry association for the purposes of establishing ever higher levels of safety for the commercial human spaceflight industry, sharing best practi ...

. He also worked on the

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...

mission at the

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (or simply Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University ...

, for which the

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

78867 Isakowitz was named. The fellowship was founded by Isakowitz's family, including his father Steve Isakowitz, and former colleague

Sirisha Bandla Sirisha Bandla (born 1988) is a Telugu American aeronautical engineer and commercial astronaut. She is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations for Virgin Galactic. She flew on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission which ...

in 2017. Between 2017 and 2024, the program offered students paid summer internships at commercial space companies (including

Blue Origin Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own ...

Rocket Lab Rocket Lab Corporation is a Public company, publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and List of launch service providers, launch service provider. Its Rocket Lab Electron, Electron orbital rocket launches Small satellite, small satellites, and ha ...

, etc.), travel stipends, and mentorship from notable aerospace leaders, including

CEOs Kea (), also known as Tzia () and in antiquity Keos (, ), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. Geography It is the island of the Cyclades complex that is closest to Att ...

(e.g.

Tom Mueller Thomas John Mueller is an American aerospace engineer and rocket engine designer. He was employee No.1 of SpaceX and is the founder and now CEO of Impulse Space. Mueller is best known for his engineering work on the Merlin, Draco, Super Draco ...

, George Whitesides, Mandy Vaughn), 10

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

(e.g. John M. Grunsfeld, Cadey Coleman,

Sandy Magnus Sandra Hall Magnus (born October 30, 1964) is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She flew to space three times, as mission specialist on STS-112, as ISS crewmember during Expedition 18 and as mission specialist on STS-135. She is al ...

), former

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 ...

administrators,

JPL The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researche ...

directors, and other experienced executives. Fellows were also paired with previous alumni, who aced as peer mentors, and were flown out to the annual summit in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to network, tour aerospace companies, and to meet industry leaders such as

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

and

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin ( ; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three extravehicular activity, spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eag ...

. In 2024, the fellowship program announced that it would no longer accept new fellows. The program remains partnered with the

Brooke Owens Fellowship The Brooke Owens Fellowship is a non-profit program in the United States that provides paid internships and executive mentorship for undergraduate women seeking a career in aviation or space exploration. The fellowship was created to honor the mem ...

, and the Future Space Leaders Foundation.

Alumni

As of 2024, the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship has 200 alumni across 7 cohorts associated with 100+ different universities internationally. The program was noted for being increasingly competitive, with more than half of all fellows associated with

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

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, or

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

alone. Thousands of students from around the United States applied to the fellowship. Approximately thirty were selected annually. Selection was made through an evaluation of merit and the perceived embodiment of Isakowitz's qualities. This was done primarily by means of interviews and essay responses. Finalists were matched with host companies, who independently conducted interviews and awarded offers.

References

{{reflist Internships Private spaceflight