Hernandez holding a high altitude balloon launch payload 
she built which reached 89,245 ft. in altitude.

Diana Hernandez is performing research using data from a sun-orbiting space probe  as an undergraduate sophomore. 

It is an impressive job for a student who only recently completed her first thermodynamics course. 

A first-generation student at the University of Colorado Boulder and Lattice Scholar, Hernandez is modeling t space dust impact data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP).

Undergraduate Research

While dust on Earth is a nuisance, in space it is a building block for planets and stars. Studying it can help us better understand how our solar system developed.

Space dust can also cause problems. Though the particles are very small, they are electrically and magnetically charged. Impacts with space probes can create electronic disruptions. PSP carries a special instrument suite designed to measure signals from these impacts using three search-coil magnetometers.

Hernandez with Polaris Dawn astronaut and 
CU Boulder alumna Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr'17).

“You would not expect that dust in space could have such a big impact. It’s really cool,” Hernandez said.

Her efforts, in the lab of aerospace Professor Zoltan Sternovsky, were part of the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship and Fundamentals of Undergraduate Research Program programs, which offer students the chance to conduct hands-on research as undergraduates.

“It’s amazing work and the people in the lab have helped me step-by-step to become a researcher; how to look into what the data’s telling you and when you come to a dead end, how to get out of it to come to a conclusion,” she said.

Through DLA, Hernandez was recently selected to present her research at the the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) this spring in Richmond, Virginia.

Hidden Figures

Hernandez’s aerospace path began nearly a decade ago, when she first saw the film Hidden Figures, about the Black women at NASA in the 1950s and ’60s who solved the complex computational problems that landed astronauts on the Moon.

“Watching the movie in middle school with my Dad, he said he wanted me to be like the first Black women in NASA. Becoming an astronaut became my goal. When I started looking at colleges, I researched where astronauts went to school,” Hernandez said.

Reaching Out

Hernandez is excelling in her classes today, but when she first enrolled at CU Boulder, it took time to find her place on campus.

Hernandez (fourth from left) with members of ROTC.

“I didn’t do so well freshman year and failed two classes,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t know how to study. I love math and science, but my high school was pretty easy. I’m the very first one my family to ever set foot in a university, and I didn’t know how to ask for help.”

A heart-to-heart with her scholarship advisors connected Hernandez with the Campos Student Center, peer mentoring resources, and other students with similar experiences. Participation in ROTC also helped her build discipline.

“I started going to peer academic tutoring and now, a year later, I’m serving as a mentor for incoming freshmen. I’ve learned more about myself and am creating a positive impact on other students,” she said.

When Hernandez began at CU Boulder, her intention was to earn a bachelor’s degree and then commissioned as an officer in the Air Force. Exposure to research has her moving in another direction, toward graduate school.

“I really fell in love with the idea of grad school,” Hernandez said. “I have so much curiosity. Grad school could open so many opportunities. I also want to show my three little siblings you can get a bachelor’s degree and even go for a master’s.”