Zonta AMELIA EARHART FELLOW Explores
New Horizons
Kimberly Ennico-Smith (center) and her fellow Deputy Project Scientists on the New Horizon team Cathy Olkin, Southwest Research Institute (left) and Leslie Young, Southwest Research Institute (right). Photo: Michael Soluri
After a 9 1/2-year journey, the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto on the morning of 14 July 2015. It will take 16 months for the information gathered to be received, and even longer before it is processed. But soon, we will have detailed images of Pluto’s surface for the first time ever. Dr. Kimberly Ennico Smith, a co-investigator and deputy project scientist for the groundbreaking New Horizons Pluto fly-by mission, is a former Amelia Earhart Fellow. In light of the attention she and her team have received, we thought it a good time to catch up with the NASA astrophysicist.
What or who first inspired you to want to become involved in aerospace? It was never any specific person who inspired me to get involved in aerospace. I had always, as far back as I can remember, been a curious learner, wanting to know everything about the world around me. I asked many questions and do recall many times when teachers got tired of me asking
questions. I remained persistent wanting to learn, and my best teachers were those who found creative ways to keep my "enthusiasm for learning" engaged. Most treasured of all, were three teachers whose encouragement got me through some self-doubt times: seventh grade, high school sophomore year, and second year undergraduate. My childhood dream was to become an astronaut, and it is a goal I still strive for today. To me, an astronaut is the embodiment of scientist, engineer, explorer, ambassador, teacher-all professions I admire. Having not yet succeeded, I will keep trying at the next opportunity. Meanwhile, I work hard to live the life of scientist, engineer, explorer, ambassador, and teacher each day in my life and work. Growing up, my bedroom walls would be adorned with the Mercury Seven's achievements. I grew up well after the Apollo missions, and the Space Shuttles were simply the coolest engineering I could imagine. I loved all sorts of subjects, with a deep love of the 2014–2016 BIENNIUM • ISSUE THREE
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