How NASA Engineer Daniel Cohen Mentors Rice Student Malvika Bhardwaj for Next-Gen Space Talent

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Guidance, Navigation & Control engineer Daniel Cohen is shaping the agency’s future workforce—one intern at a time. Rice University student Malvika Bhardwaj, who worked under Cohen, recalls asking if he could keep teaching interns despite his heavy workload. His reply: “You decide what’s important.” That philosophy, highlighted on National Mentoring Day (Oct. 27), underscores why mentorship matters at NASA: it transfers mission-critical skills and builds a pipeline of diverse engineers ready for Artemis, Mars, and beyond. Cohen’s hands-on approach gives students like Bhardwaj real-world experience in GN&C—the systems that steer spacecraft—while fostering confidence and curiosity. For an agency planning long-duration missions, investing in people is as vital as investing in hardware. Bhardwaj’s story shows how one mentor’s commitment can ripple across generations. The takeaway: when experienced engineers prioritize teaching, they don’t just fill seats—they launch careers.