Dr. Anita Sengupta

An aerospace engineer, commercial pilot and rocket scientist, she has spent 20 years developing technologies that enabled the exploration of Mars, asteroids and deep space. She began her career at Boeing Space and Communications and then spent 16 years at NASA, where her projects included the ion propulsion system for the Dawn mission to the main asteroid belt, the supersonic parachute that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars, and the Cold Atom Laboratory on the International Space Station. As Senior Vice President of Systems Engineering at Virgin Hyperloop, she led the development of the Hyperloop. In 2020 she founded Hydroplane Ltd., which is developing hydrogen fuel cell powerplant technology for carbon-emission-free aviation and mobile energy transport, supported by US Air Force Agility Prime contracts, a California Energy Commission grant and a US Navy SBIR. In 2023 she received the National Aeronautic Association’s Stinson Trophy, and Hydroplane was named Innovation Company of the Year by the US Minority Business Development Agency. She is Research Professor of Astronautical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), where she earned her MS and PhD in Aerospace Engineering.