After completing her Master’s degree in spacecraft altitude dynamics and control at Illinois, Victoria Coverstone took a position at the TRW Space Park in California.
While there, she realized her career goal was to become an astronaut.
Coverstone returned to Illinois for her PhD as a step in pursuing her dream, and achieved a personal interview in Houston. NASA would hire 25 out of the 122 candidates it interviewed. She was not chosen due to a vision issue, but followed another passion by continuing to teach in the Aerospace Department at Illinois.
After teaching for twenty years and serving as Associate Head of Aerospace Engineering for two years, Coverstone joined the College of Engineering at the University of Miami as a professor and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Coverstone has won several teaching awards, including the College of Engineering Stanley H. Pierce Award for outstanding undergraduate engineering. Read an interview with Coverstone here.
Read her biography here.
Interview: EngineerGirl
Photo: Victoria Coverstone
Written by: Taylor Tucker, August 2017
Updated: September 2018