MSc Student wins the 2025 Space4Youth Competition Empowering Youth for the Future of Space

UCL student Immi Garlick is a winner of the UNOOSA  2025 Space4Youth Essay Competition with her essay: ‘Make Space for Space; The Lunchtime Club to Nurture New Careers’.

The competition, organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC).invites young professionals and students from across the globe to participate in sharing their ideas under this year’s theme of ‘Empowering Youth for the Future of Space’.

Here is what Immi chose to write about in her winning submission:

“‘My essay focused on highlighting the importance of accessibility to the space sector and space education from an early age through a nationwide lunchtime club called ‘Make Space for Space’. My idea ensured that students have the opportunity to engage with space-related topics and studies regardless of their background, in the hopes to inspire future generations of space enthusiasts and eventually bridge the gender imbalance within the space industry.’

It is well known that the space sector suffers from a lack of diversity in the EU, with a similar picture in the UK where a number of barriers to entry have been identified, making concepts such as Immi’s timely and important contributions to finding solutions.

Immi is conducting her MSc project analysing data from the SWOT satellite supervised by Dr Rosemary Willatt in the Department of Earth Sciences, and she is a student on the MSc Space Science and Engineering Masters at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL). MSSL and Earth Sciences have worked closely for many years on satellite development for climate monitoring, and student projects are a great way to share knowledge and expertise across departments and with future generations of scientists and engineers. Immi found the project via Prof Steve Baker at MSSL, who is collaborating with Rosie on a new Earth Observation mission concept, and they are both members of the UCL Space Domain Steering Committee.

Thinking about her own future in the space sector, Immi says:

‘I am currently undertaking my thesis in Earth Sciences at UCL where I am looking into radar scattering from the SWOT satellite. This research has reinforced my passion for space-based climate studies and motivated me to pursue Earth Observation mission research to tackle climate challenges.’

We congratulate Immi on her achievement and look forward to supporting her through the rest of her Masters programme at UCL, as well as hearing how her career develops beyond her time here.