Young Alumni Award

Originally from Oak Ridge, TN, systems engineer Brad Hensley graduated from Rhodes in 2012 with a double major in biology and physics. As an undergraduate, he developed an interest in aerospace engineering and went on to earn a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado – Boulder.
 
While working in the aerospace industry, Hensley has led efforts to develop advanced deployable structures for defense and commercial spacecrafts. He also is an inventor with multiple patents in a technology called slit-tube boom, which has been adopted by the space industry to deploy spacecraft systems.

Hensley was involved in a NASA-simulated mission to Mars during the summer of 2022. For 45 days, he and other crew members lived and worked like astronauts on the Human Exploration Research Analog at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston while “traveling” to the Martian moon Phobos.

Hensley has offered shadowing opportunities to Rhodes physics students interested in the aerospace industry and serves as consultant for the college’s RHOK-SAT project involving a four-inch cube satellite designed by faculty and students to be launched into space aboard a NASA-sponsored rocket by late 2024.