Issue date: 2/25/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Jonny Green Daniele Mortari, a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, turned his attention to aerospace engineering after his degree in nuclear engineering became "a degree of the past." Mortari says, "Aerospace engineering needs and can accomodate many different skills." [Click to enlarge]

"Once you really understand what you like, then you will find the path toward it," said Daniele Mortari, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering.

Mortari said he understands the dilemma of finding a field that truly interests students enough for them to pursue it as a career. The path that led him to aerospace engineering, his second choice, has earned him a Group Achievement Award from NASA. The NASA recognition was awarded in response to his work developing a space navigation system.

The native Italian received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University "La Sapienza" of Rome. His first "Dottore" degree was in nuclear engineering, which fascinated him because of its relevance to his home country at the time.

"At that time, it was the 'degree of the future:' many nuclear reactors were planned to provide power for Italy," Mortari said.

His dissertation was on the topic of neutronics of Canadian Deuterium-Uranium Reactors. Soon after, Mortari discovered his degree would not serve him as he had intended.

"During the course of my graduate work, public opinion in Italy changed and nuclear power was not an option anymore," Mortari said. "So my diploma became a 'degree of the past' with no employment opportunities."

Mortari turned his attention to the growing field of aerospace engineering. As the third nation to put a satellite in orbit, Italy was eager to develop more thinkers in the field. Mortari was sent to NASA-Goddard near Washington, D.C., and went on to complete his second "Dottore" degree in this field.

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