“I was always fascinated with space and space travel, and science fiction. I mean, I’ve read science fiction since I was eight, and so I was always fascinated with the idea of going to space. I had my astronaut application in, probably from when I was like, 20 or 24.
“I ended up getting into engineering. I loved it, I loved the people, and I just instantly became wedded to engineering. … This is my 32nd year at NASA Langley. I’ve really enjoyed my work and have worked on a lot of really fun things – stuff on the space station, launch vehicles, entry vehicles – I really love it. Never did get into the astronaut program.
“I’ve also always been a big solar advocate. I worked with my kid’s school and got a group of parents to put solar [panels] on the school. … When I thought about how to do the most amount of good, I thought we should be putting solar panels on disadvantaged homes and businesses to really help people that need it and can’t afford it. … So we started a small women-owned business that works with investors to deploy solar.”
– Ruth Amundsen, Aerospace Engineer, Langley Research Center
Image Credit: NASA / Dave Bowman
Interviewer: NASA / Caroline Capone