Rhodes alumna Giuliana Hofheins ’22, who is a Ph.D. candidate in aerospace engineering at Cornell University, has been selected for a 2025 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. She is one of 35 women globally to receive the $10,000 award.
At Cornell, Hofheins works with Dr. Elaine Petro in the college’s Advanced Space Technology Research and Architectures Laboratory (ASTRAlab), with a focus on ionic liquid electrospray propulsion diagnostics. She is currently a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities Fellow and previously a New York Space Grant Graduate Research Fellow.
Hofheins earned a bachelor’s degree in physics (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in 2022 from Rhodes, where she served as co-founder of Rhodes’ Aerospace Engineering Club and president of the Society of Physics Students (SPS).
She also completed a minor in mathematics and authored proposals that resulted in the Rhodes SPS chapter receiving two research awards to be used toward building RHOK-SAT, a four-inch, cube-shaped satellite that will be launched by NASA this year. In 2021, she received the SPS Leadership Scholarship.
The Amelia Earhart Fellowship was established in 1938 in honor of famed pilot Amelia Earhart. Candidates who demonstrate a superior academic record conducting research applied to aerospace engineering or space sciences are eligible.
"I chose to attend Rhodes College because I value the liberal arts education, the small class sizes, and the close-knit community in a culturally vibrant city,” said Hofheins. “Attending Rhodes remains the best decision I’ve made—the liberal arts foundation taught me to think holistically, and the mentorship I received from exceptional professors across disciplines continues to shape how I approach research and my career in aerospace engineering.”