{"id":95038,"date":"2026-07-14T17:39:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=95038"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:39:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:39:42","slug":"distinguished-speaker-series-presents-moogega-cooper","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/event\/distinguished-speaker-series-presents-moogega-cooper\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguished Speaker Series presents Moogega Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Moogega Cooper<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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Award-winning Engineer of the Famed Mars Rover \u201cPerseverance\u201d Mission | Real-life \u201cGuardian of the Galaxy\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cLimitless: From the Earth to the Stars\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. COMMEMORATION EVENT<\/i><\/p>\n

Presented in part by:<\/h3>\n
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Free tickets available for graduate students (TBA) through the UB Ticket Office<\/a>.\u00a0 1 per UB ID.<\/p>\n

Public Ticket Information<\/a><\/p>\n

Thurs., Feb. 11, 2027 at 7:00 p.m.
\nCenter for the Arts
\nUB North Campus<\/p>\n

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More About Moogega Cooper<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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A real life \u201cGuardian of the Galaxy,\u201d Moogega \u201cMoo\u201d Cooper holds the awesome responsibility of keeping the red planet safe from any of the Earth\u2019s contaminants.\u00a0 Cooper is the planetary protection lead of the famed NASA 2020 Mars mission\u2014with a highly viewed landing on February 18, 2021.\u00a0 Her work with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is integral to the ongoing mission to discern whether Mars could be habitable for humans and that we don\u2019t harm what\u2019s already there\u2014a job she has been working up to for most of her life.<\/p>\n

After graduating from high school at 16, Cooper studied physics as an undergraduate, received a master’s degree and went on to earn her PhD in mechanical engineering at 24 years old with a dissertation on spacecraft materials.<\/p>\n

Cooper is passionate about empowering organizations and others to achieve their dreams and overcome obstacles that she articulately conveys through her life story and love of her work.<\/p>\n

A role model for women in science and technology, she is also passionate about introducing more people to the wonders of the STEAM world, including by talking about her work to boys and girls from underrepresented communities and appearing on shows like \u201cBecause Space\u201d and \u201cBill Nye Saves the World.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper is a recipient of several awards, including the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, the Charles Elachi Award for Exceptional Early Career Achievement and JPL Voyager Awards for Technical Leadership.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moogega Cooper Award-winning Engineer of the Famed Mars Rover \u201cPerseverance\u201d Mission | Real-life \u201cGuardian of the Galaxy\u201d \u201cLimitless: From the Earth to the Stars\u201d ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. COMMEMORATION … Continue reading Distinguished Speaker Series presents Moogega Cooper<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":360,"featured_media":95039,"template":"","meta":{"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[29],"class_list":["post-95038","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-university-event","cat_university-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/95038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/95038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95040,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/95038\/revisions\/95040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95038"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=95038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}