Dr Norah Patten
Aeronautical Engineer & Award Winning Author,
Dr. Norah Patten is an aeronautical engineer, a global faculty member at the International Space University (ISU), and a citizen scientist-astronaut candidate with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS). Norah has participated in several citizen science campaigns including multiple microgravity research flights, spacesuit testing and evaluation, high-g flights, and spacecraft egress. She is an award-winning author and STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) advocate and is a popular communicator with radio, television and public speaking experience. In 2023, she collaborated with the Department of Foreign Affairs for the Brigit’s Day campaign. In 2019, Norah released her children's book called ‘Shooting for the Stars', published by The O’Brien Press, and it won the An Post Children's Book of the Year, senior. She was a recipient of the Emerging Space Leaders Grant and a Next Generation Plenary panellist at the International Astronautical Congress in 2015. Through a partnership with NanoRacks and the Irish Composites Centre, Norah initiated and managed ‘The Only Way is Up’ project which launched Ireland's first student experiment to the International Space Station in 2014. Norah participated in the International Space University Space Studies Program in 2010, holds a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Limerick, participated in the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers Program, and has industrial experience from The Boeing Company and Bell Labs Alcatel Lucent.
