Moogega Cooper

Cooper was born in 1985 in Southern New Jersey to a Korean mother and African-American father, and World War II veteran.[1] She received a B.A. in Physics from Hampton University in 2006, followed by a Masters and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in thermal fluid sciences from Drexel University. Cooper's dissertation focused on non-equilibrium plasma sterilization of spacecraft materials, enabling her to obtain a position with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Planetary Protection Group in 2011.[2] Cooper is the Lead of Planetary Protection for the Mars 2020 Mission and is involved with the InSight Mission, which involves preventing NASA satellites and probes from contaminating other planets or moons with microorganisms[3] and technologies which are able to search for and monitor the persistence of life in extreme environments.[4]

Cooper was a participant on the first season of King of the Nerds, which aired on TBS in 2013, finishing in 5th place.[5] Cooper was a panelist in "The Original Martian Invasion", a 2017 episode of the television series Bill Nye Saves the World. She also appeared in 33 episodes of How the Universe Works from 2015 to 2020.

Cooper won the Drexel University 40 under 40 Award (2015)[6] and the NASA Group Achievement Award, “For exceptional performance in the rigorous evaluation and rapid synthesis of a development strategy for the Mars Sample Return Planetary Protection technology.” October 2012.[2]