ESAM Alum and SpaceX President & COO Speaks to ESAM Department

On November 17, 2017 SpaceX’s Gwynne

Shotwell spoke in front of a packed ESAM conference room to discuss the trajectory of SpaceX’s business and to provide general guidance for students interested in working at SpaceX. She also shared her career path, from a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at Northwestern to work at an automobile company to a Master’s student in Northwestern’s Engineering Sciences and Applied Math Department (ESAM) to work in the aerospace field and, finally, to SpaceX, where she reports directly to Elon Musk.

Gwynne discussed the importance of reusable rockets and showed several videos of space launches, re-entry and landings, and prototype rockets. Following her presentation, Gwynne engaged in a lively question-answer period with the audience, beginning with the question, “Who wants to go to Mars?”

Beforehand, members of WESAM (Women in ESAM) met with Gwynne for an informal discussion on topics of their choice.