From Ulyana Horodyskyj ’07 (Brown College) — I was selected as mission commander for NASA Johnson Space Center's HERA XII (human exploration research analog) experiment in September/October 2016. During this 30-day intense simulated mission to an asteroid, I received a call in the station's airlock that I made semifinalist status (top 120 out of over 18,300 applicants) for the astronaut program. I went straight from the isolation experiment to the interview process in late October 2016.

Julie Tam ’03, who has served on the Association of Rice Alumni Board of Directors and is a past Young Alumni Builders Award recipient, was recently named a 20 Under 40 Rising Star in Real Estate for 2016 by the Houston Association of Realtors’ Young Professionals Network. The annual awards program honors Houston realtors who are 40 years old or younger and have demonstrated overall excellence in their careers and through community service during the past year.