Luz E. Virgen

She manages reliability engineering for Virgin Galactic's spaceflight vehicles — the work that determines how long a system will last, how it can be maintained, and how it's serviced over its operational life.

She immigrated from Mexico with her family in middle school and became the first in her family to graduate college, earning a mechanical engineering degree from UC Santa Barbara. She spent years at Boeing as a Fleet Health Monitoring Engineer on the 777 and 737 MAX fleets before moving into commercial spaceflight at Virgin Galactic, building a 34-year aerospace career.

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara

She was in middle school when she arrived in the U.S. not speaking the language the classroom used — now she manages the reliability engineering of a spaceship. Her own high school calculus teacher was Jaime Escalante, and she now does for other students what he did for her.

Gerente de ingeniería de confiabilidad en Virgin Galactic con una carrera aeroespacial de 34 años, desde flotas comerciales de Boeing hasta vuelos espaciales comerciales.

• Luz Virgen — Technica Magazine
• 2022 HENAAC Award Winners — Lifetime Achievement — Great Minds in STEM (HENAAC)