The Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

program in the United States that provided paid

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

s and executive mentorship to exceptional

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

and graduate students seeking careers in commercial space for nearly a decade. The fellowship was created in memory of Matthew Isakowitz, an American

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

and early contributor to the field of commercial spaceflight who died at the age of 29.

Motivation and overview

The Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program connected exceptional students with the resources to become leaders in the commercial space industry, with the goal of bolstering the then-fledgling industry and fostering excitement for commercial spaceflight in young engineers. Matthew Isakowitz was an aerospace engineer from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

who worked at XPRIZE,

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

, and

Astranis Astranis Space Technologies Corp., doing business as Astranis, is a private American geostationary communications satellite operator and manufacturer headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded by chief executive officer John Gedma ...

, and served as associate director of the

Commercial Spaceflight Federation The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is a private spaceflight industry group, incorporated as an industry association for the purposes of establishing ever higher levels of safety for the commercial human spaceflight industry, sharing best pract ...

. He also worked on the

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research ...

mission at the

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and empl ...

, for which the

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

78867 Isakowitz was named. The fellowship was founded by Isakowitz's family, including his father Steve Isakowitz, and former colleague

Sirisha Bandla Sirisha Bandla ( 1988) is an Indian-American aeronautical engineer. She's the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations for Virgin Galactic. She flew on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission which made her the second India-born ...

in 2017. Between 2017 and 2024, the program offered students paid summer internships at commercial space companies (including

Blue Origin Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...

Rocket Lab Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider, with a New Zealand subsidiary. The company operates lightweight Electron orbital rockets, which provide dedicated launches for small satellites. Rocket Lab also ...

, etc.), travel stipends, and mentorship from notable aerospace leaders, including

CEOs Kea ( el, Κέα), also known as Tzia ( el, Τζια) and in antiquity Keos ( el, Κέως, la, Ceos), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. Geography It is the island o ...

(e.g.

Tom Mueller Thomas John Mueller is an American aerospace engineer and rocket engine designer. He was a founding employee of SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California, and t ...

, George Whitesides,

Mandy Vaughn Mandy Vaughn (née Chambers) is an American aeronautical engineer. She was President of Virgin Orbit's sister company, VOX space. Early life and education Vaughn began flying aged 11 and earned her pilots license aged 18. She studied mechanic ...

), 10

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

(e.g. John M. Grunsfeld, Cadey Coleman,

Sandy Magnus Sandra Hall Magnus (born October 30, 1964) is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She returned to Earth with the crew of STS-119 Space Shuttle Discovery, ''Discovery'' on March 28, 2009, after having spent 134 days in orbit. She was ...

), former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

administrators,

JPL The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

directors, and other experienced executives. Fellows were also paired with previous alumni, who aced as peer mentors, and were flown out to the annual summit in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to network, tour aerospace companies, and to meet industry leaders such as

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

and

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...

. In 2024, the fellowship program announced that it would no longer accept new fellows. The program remains partnered with the Brooke Owens Fellowship,

, and the Future Space Leaders Foundation.

Alumni

As of 2024, the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship has 200 alumni across 7 cohorts associated with 100+ different universities internationally. The program was noted for being increasingly competitive, with more than half of all fellows associated with

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, or

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

alone. Thousands of students from around the United States applied to the fellowship. Approximately thirty were selected annually. Selection was made through an evaluation of merit and the perceived embodiment of Isakowitz's qualities. This was done primarily by means of interviews and essay responses. Finalists were matched with host companies, who independently conducted interviews and awarded offers.

References

{{reflist Internships Private spaceflight