Jandura’s
Gravitational Pull by Chip Rogers
While Jandura had always been interested in math and science, the discipline of chemistry was her first love. She had planned on pursuing a career in chemistry through her work at MIT, and that coursework included two semesters of physics as a freshman.
The tug at her heartstrings from this class was seismic. Through a curriculum of physics, she could combine her love of invention and her eye for design, and a degree in mechanical engineering would go a long way in helping her satisfy her cravings intellectually. over the next three years, Jandura pursued — and achieved—excellence both in the classroom and on the hockey pitch. She was a CoSIDA Academic All-American four times, including twice in softball and once each in hockey and basket- ball. Her teammates elected her as captain of both the hockey and softball teams, and she was named the MvP for both squads as well.
When she wasn’t on the athletic fields, she was busy in labs and classrooms, earning admission to national honor societies such as Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma and gaining recognition from her departments, who presented her with numerous awards for her outstanding success.
Jandura’s post-graduate work clearly demonstrated her dual love of sports and science. While serving as an assistant coach for the MIT hockey team, Jandura was going to grad school— getting a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. A consummate student-athlete, the New Jersey native was leading by both word and example.
After taking her master’s degree, Jandura continued to combine her dual passions of sport and science as she stepped full-time into a teaching role for the next couple of years, serving as the head coach of the MIT hockey team. When the scientist
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wasn’t on the turf, she was working as a research assistant, collaborating on designing and developing a simulation system used for modeling and analysis of discrete event systems.
While these forays into design and development seem to tax even the 4.0 students, Jandura was looking for more adventure. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL for short, seemed to promise that adventure. The catch, however, was that it would take the Garden Stater away from the east coast and far from her family.
“The great thing for me was that my family was 100% behind my taking the job,” recalled Jandura. “My mother told me that if this is what was right, we [the family] would find a way to make that work.”
If Jandura could design an electronics panel that helped produce topographic maps of 80% of the Earth’s surface from the shut- tle Endeavour, planning trips to see family was child’s play.
Jandura jumped into her role at JPL with the same enthusiasm and dedication that had earned her recognition on the athletics fields. As a rookie, she served as a cognizant engineer, during which time she was responsible for the development and design for one part of a huge project. The entire team was broken down into multiple subsets that each had a specific piece of the greater objective. The goal was to provide scientists around the world the most accurate picture of the Earth’s surface by using radar pictures obtained from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), helping them better understand Earth's systems of land, water, air, and life, how they interact, and how they are changing.
“I remember thinking that it was the neatest thing in the world to see something work in space and I didn’t even work on that part
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