Dr. Hongru Chen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, which she joined in December 2024. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University in China in 2010 and her Ph.D. from Kyushu University in Japan in 2015, both in Aerospace Engineering. She conducted her Ph.D. research at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and once worked at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Paris Observatory, Kyushu University, and the University of Southampton in the UK. She has contributed to JAXA and CNES’ interplanetary projects, such as the first interplanetary micro-spacecraft PROCYON, DESTINY, and the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX).