Tulane Introduces New Space Science and Engineering Minor
An interdisciplinary program will connect science, engineering, computing, and human health while preparing students for opportunities across the rapidly growing space sector.
Tulane University students interested in exploring the science and technology behind humanity’s expanding presence in space will soon have a new academic pathway. The School of Science and Engineering has established an interdisciplinary Space Science and Engineering Minor that will draw upon courses and faculty expertise from across the school.
Students will be able to formally declare the minor beginning in Fall 2027. Many of the courses included in the program are already offered, however, giving current students the opportunity to begin completing applicable coursework and working with faculty advisers to plan their pathways now.
The minor was created in response to growing student interest in space exploration and instrumentation, and the increasing demand for professionals who can work across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Satellite-based observation, communications, planetary research, human spaceflight and emerging space technologies require expertise extending far beyond any single field. The new minor will help students understand those connections by combining foundational science with engineering, computing, and other complementary areas of study.
“The rapid expansion of satellite-based planetary observation, communications, security, technology, and NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program has led to workforce gaps in non-traditional areas. The cross-disciplinary skills and context within the new minor prepare Tulane students to fill those gaps,” said Dr. Cynthia Ebinger, Space Science and Engineering Task Force Lead.
Open to Tulane undergraduates from any major, the 16-credit minor will include foundational coursework in astrophysics and planetary science, an engineering component , and electives that allow students to shape the program around their academic and professional interests. Potential areas of exploration include planetary observation, spacecraft systems, robotics, communications, materials, energy systems, remote sensing, human health and performance, computer simulation and artificial intelligence.
The program is designed to complement a student’s primary major rather than replicating it. A student studying chemical engineering, for example, might explore materials and energy systems for spaceflight and habitation. A biomedical engineering or neuroscience student could investigate how the human body responds to space travel, while a computer science student might focus on artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles, machine learning, and virtual twins. Students in Earth and environmental sciences, physics, mathematics, and other fields will be able to build similarly customized pathways.
“Space science spans many disciplines, and the many pathways to complete the minor reflect this fact. Our faculty will help each student select space-related courses that best match their interests,” said Dr. Daniel Straus, Assistant Professor of Chemistry.
Faculty members from Earth and environmental sciences, physics and engineering physics, mathematics, computer science, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, cell and molecular biology, chemistry, and chemical and biomolecular engineering helped shape the program. The minor grew out of discussions organized through the SpaceSSE Task Force and was informed by student participation in emerging space-related research opportunities at Tulane.
Those opportunities are already demonstrating the power of interdisciplinary collaboration. During the 2025–26 academic year, 42 Tulane undergraduates participated in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. One team developed a NASA-supported experiment to investigate how microscopic droplets known as coacervate protocells behave in microgravity and what their behavior could reveal about the origins of life beyond Earth.
The team brought together undergraduates Noa Aval, Brenden Findlay and Nam Joshua Nguyen, whose academic interests span environmental biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and chemical and biomolecular engineering. With faculty mentorship from Noshir Pesika, the students designed an experiment selected to travel to the International Space Station aboard a future SpaceX mission.
“With the resources here, if you want to do something ambitious, you can,” Nguyen said in an earlier interview about the project. “I want to go to space and working on this project makes that goal feel real.”
The experiment reflects the kind of collaborative thinking the new minor is intended to encourage. Students interested in space-related careers increasingly need to understand how scientific discovery, engineering design, computational tools, and human needs interact. The minor will give them a structured way to explore those relationships while continuing to develop expertise in their primary fields.
“This next decade of space exploration is different. It will need people who can work across scientific and engineering disciplines, and SSE is the only school in the nation bringing together this breadth of disciplines in one faculty. I am grateful to the faculty who designed this interdisciplinary minor, and I am excited for our students, who can now connect whatever they study at Tulane to humanity's future in space. Our undergraduates have already designed an experiment selected to fly to the International Space Station, and I cannot wait to see what they do next,” said Hridesh Rajan, dean of the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering.
The program’s faculty advisers will help students identify connected electives and build pathways aligned with their goals. Advisers currently identified in the academic proposal include Cynthia Ebinger, Matt Escarra, Ken McLaughlin, Mark Mondrinos and Daniel Straus, representing disciplines across science, engineering, computing and human health.
Students can learn more about the minor and Tulane’s expanding space-related research during the Space Science & Engineering Forum: Explore Your Place in Space on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in the Diboll Gallery in Malkin Sacks Commons from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Schedule of Events:
- 9:00 a.m.: Coffee and Undergraduate Research Poster Session
- 9:30 a.m.: Kickoff Address and SSE Start-Up Research Project Presentations
- 11:00 a.m.: Undergraduate Research Poster Session
- 12:00 p.m.: Lunch for attendees who R.S.V.P.!
- 12:15 p.m.: Keynote by Tia Ferguson, Senior Executive (retired), NASA Marshall SFC, "Opportunities for Discovery and Careers in Space Science and Engineering"
- 12:45 p.m.: Josh Nguyen '27 presents the NASA-supported project, “Coacervate Protocells in Microgravity: Stability, Function, and Implications for the Origins of Life Beyond Earth,” which was selected through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program and will investigate how microscopic droplets known as coacervate protocells behave in microgravity.
- 1:00 p.m.: Overview of New Space Science and Engineering Minor by Cindy Ebinger
- 1:15 p.m.: Matt Barrios presents Go TU Space! - How to gain space-related experience as a Tulane student in science and engineering
- 1:30 p.m.: Networking with Industry attendees and SSE Faculty