Gabriela Gutierrez Duran

Gabriela Gutierrez Duran is the first engineer in her family. As a child, she traveled a lot with her parents. The very first time she boarded a plane, she recalls feeling extremely happy, looking out the window to see the plane’s wings and wondering how they worked. During her time at FIU, she was an active member of the Aerospace Engineering Club. As a student, she was part of an FAA-sponsored project that researched adhesively bonded composite materials that one day could replace the rivets and bolts on commercial aircraft. After completing an internship at Boeing, they offered her a job as a flight test engineer starting this summer.