Former biochemistry student Akemi Hinzer is working to prepare the NASA Europa Clipper for its Jupiter mission

The CSUN Newsroom has published an article about former undergraduate student Akemi Hinzer (BS Biochemistry) and her role in preparing NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft for launch in a few days (with a launch window October 12 – November 6). The Clipper’s mission is to do multiple close fly-bys of Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, with the goal of determining whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life. Akemi, who was a BUILD PODER research student in Dr. Crowhurst‘s lab, has the official title for this project of Planetary Protection Scientist. Her job is to ensure that the aircraft is maintained in pristine condition so that it does not carry any microbial life from earth that could end up on Europa. More details about Akemi’s unusual path to CSUN and onward to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and NASA can be found in the CSUN Newsroom article.