Jessica Collisson received B.S degrees in both Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 1999. She joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an Integration and Test Engineer for the Mars Exploration Rovers. She assists in the assembly and functionality testing of engineering models of the flight spacecraft. These models include all stages of the spacecraft including a full up rover. She is also the Lead Engineer for the Surface System Testbed; an area where surface operations and tests for the rovers are performed. When not working in the lab, she enjoys skiing and spending time at her home near the beach reading. For her, the best part of being an engineer is having the opportunity to build a device that will someday be on a different planet, and to have it teach us something in return. Exploring many different areas and then determining which one you enjoy working on the most is her advice to students considering careers in space science and engineering.
