Inspiring STEM Pathways: Nathan Brooks

Nathan Brooks, an engineer at Boeing, invents ways to improve antennas and other technologies for communications, signal jamming, and the detection of airplanes, rockets, and missiles in flight. Born in Louisiana, Nathan played sports throughout school and then became interested in math and science during high school in Missouri City, Texas. He pursued graduate study and earned a PhD with research into electromagnetic systems necessary for hypersonic flight (5 times the speed of sound). Nathan continues to work on geolocation technologies, and has won numerous awards, including being named Boeing Defense Space and Security Engineer of the Year. He is Boeing’s first African American Senior Technical Fellow.
Inspiring STEM Pathways, a project by the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center, presents first-hand accounts from interviews with living inventors who work in a variety of fields and organizations. The videos and learning materials are intended to encourage students to pursue STEM fields by seeing role models speaking about their interests and passions, challenges they encountered and how they overcame them, and how they draw on curiosity and resiliency in their daily work.
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