Joseph Kirchhoff

2021 Astronaut Scholar

Hometown

Spring, TX

Major

Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering

College

College of Engineering; Honors College

 

Joseph Kirchhoff received the Astronaut Scholarship in recognition of his promising undergraduate research in composites and vision for improving their predictability and reliability. In addition to his appointment as an undergraduate research assistant at Purdue’s Composites Manufacturing Simulation Center (CMSC), Joseph completed two summer internships with Boeing’s Materials and Processes Technologies Group, including a production site for the mid and aft section of the 787 fuselages in Charleston, South Carolina, and a world leading composite design group in Tukwila, Washington.

 

Foreshadowing his success at Purdue, Joseph recalls his experience as a high school researcher at the Ballistics Loading Analysis and Structural Testing (BLAST) Labs in his home state of North Carolina. This self-lead project and the mentorship that he received set him on his current professional trajectory.

At Purdue, Joseph says that he started to make his aspirations a reality with the guidance of Dr. Byron Pipes, Executive Director, CMSC and John Leighton Bray Distinguished Professor of Engineering. Upon graduation, the next step in Joseph’s professional development is to earn a Ph.D. in computational engineering.