Summer Research 2023

The Kennedy Memorial Trustees are delighted to announce Daniel Erkel as the recipient of a Kennedy Summer Research Scholarship for 2023. These awards offer up to $3,000 to support particular research over the summer, and are open to British citizens enrolled on doctoral programmes at Harvard or MIT.

Daniel Erkel PhD Candidate, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT   Dan Erkel is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, working under the guidance of Prof. Olivier de Weck in the Engineering Systems Laboratory (ESL). At ESL, Dan’s research focuses on small satellites, commercial space stations, and successful space strategies in emerging space nations. Dan—who read mechanical engineering at UCL before coming to MIT—previously also worked for nearly half a decade as a spacecraft engineer at Airbus Defence and Space UK and was the lead technical author of an emerging space nation’s space strategy as well as the technical author of a space-focused venture capital fund’s investment strategy. In 2022—out of 23000 applicants—Dan made it to the final 45 or so candidates in ESA’s 2022 Astronaut Selection, which ended with the selection of three new British ESA astronauts, Rosemary Coogan, Meganne Christian, and John McFall. Dan will use the Kennedy Summer Research Scholarship to work with space agencies around the world, furthering his research on space strategies.