Volume III | February 2025
Inspiring Impact:
40 YEARS
Zonta Foundation for Women Quarterly Report
INVESTING IN EXCELLENCE
The Zonta Foundation for Women has a rich history of empowering women and girls through education. For decades, the Foundation has provided crucial financial support to Zonta International proprietary programs that break down barriers and open doors to academic and professional success. This commitment to education is a cornerstone of Zonta's mission to build a better world for women and girls worldwide.
One of Zonta's most prestigious and enduring programs is the Amelia Earhart (AE) Fellowship. Established in 1938, this fellowship supports women pursuing doctoral degrees in aerospace-related sciences and engineering. By investing in these exceptional women, the AE Fellowship not only fosters groundbreaking research but also inspires future generations of female scientists and engineers.
This volume of Inspiring Impact highlights the remarkable achievements of Zonta International’s AE Fellows and showcases the transformative power of education. It demonstrates how Zonta's continued support of this vital fellowship ensures a pipeline of talented women leaders in STEM fields, shaping the future of aerospace and beyond.
2024AEFELLOWPUSHESTHELIMIT OF THE HUMAN BODY IN ANTARCTICA
“Even as a child, I was inspired by the diaries of heroic explorers – Robert F Scott, who explored the North and South Poles, Alexander von Humboldt, who traversed the deepest jungles and Amelia Earhart who ventured to the highest heights.”
Growing up, Carmen always dreamed of becoming an explorer and soon realized that the modern-day equivalent would be space exploration.
This past July, Carmen, a medical doctor, member of the European Space Agency’s astronaut reserve and Ph.D. candidate in space physiology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, joined 29 other women in receiving a 2024 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. As a general practitioner, Carmen found that she appreciated the human connections she made but hungered to do more research that might benefit humankind globally.
To that end, Carmen spent an entire year in Antarctica investigating how the human body adapts to extreme environments She not only encountered the breathtaking
beauty of the most extreme continent in the world, but also her own personal limits. She published a report called, “South of the End of the World: Where the night lasts four months and a warm day is minus 50 degrees - My year in Antarctica.” The report focuses on her time in Antarctica and gives the reader an inside look of her entire experience. Today, her ongoing research focuses on how the body and mind change in microgravity, with the aim of keeping astronauts healthy and fit on future spaceflights
After completing her doctoral program, Carmen envisions further advancing human space exploration and contributing to humanity’s efforts of going back to the moon or onto Mars In addition to Earth-based space research, she also hopes one day to go to space herself. In 2022, she was selected out of 22,000 applicants into the new astronaut class of the European Space Agency as a reserve astronaut.
To learn more about the research Carmen is conducting, her view of special sciences, and the impact she would like to have on aspiring women scientists, watch the inspirational video on the right.
Carmen Possnig, 2024 Amelia Earhart Fellow
2024 AMELIA EARHART FELLOW CARMEN POSSNIG
CELEBRATING AMELIA EARHART MONTH WITH ZONTA
Last month, Zonta International hosted a special virtual event in celebration of Amelia Earhart Month. In January of 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland (500 miles longer than her crossing of the Atlantic!) In recognition of her breaking down barrier after barrier, Zonta invited four Amelia Earhart Fellows who are doing the same in their own work today.
1983 AE Fellow Dr. Beth Ebert spoke about her work in meteorology and the timing and accuracy of weather forecasts on our safety.
2002 AE Fellow Dr. Anne Staples spoke about
her work as a professor in biomedical engineering and the study of fluid dynamics to improve medical devices. 2012 AE Fellow Dr. Priyanka Dhopade spoke about reducing the carbon emitted into our air to improve air quality globally. 2016 AE Fellow Dr. Anna-Maria Kypraiou shared her work in developing energy efficient methodologies in sustainable technologies.
We highly encourage you to watch this 60-minute panel and discussion on how aerospace engineering and space sciences are affecting our daily lives and the incredible work done by our Amelia Earhart Fellows.
OTHER AE FELLOWS MAKING HISTORY
The Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship has supported many women in the aerospace science and engineering fields Below are just four of our Fellows that have paved the way for more women in STEM
Top row (L to R): AE Fellows Dr. Priyanka Dhopade (2012), Dr. Beth Ebert (1983), Dr. Anne Staples (2002) and Dr. Anna-Maria Kypraiou (2016).
(L to R): Andrea Ghez (1987), Nobel Prize winner and Zonta International Honorary Member. Sharon Langenbeck (1977 & 1978), section manager for Mechanical Engineering at JPL and Past Zonta International President. Funmilola Oluwafemi (2022), Chief Scientific Officer at the Nigerian Space Agency. Naoko Yamazaki (1994), astronaut and Zonta International Honorary Member.
