He's working on space origami, and he's making BYU proud
Our very own Philip Klocke has just received the prestigious NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities Fellowship for his work on origami-folding satellites. But his road to this achievement was not straightforward. It makes sense for Philip Klocke to excel in engineering–he feels like a kid on Christmas in his lab, and his family includes a lot of engineers–but it wasn’t his plan from the beginning to get this fellowship with NASA or to go to BYU or even to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He grew up in the seaside town of Wassenaar, Netherlands and only joined the church at seventeen after attending a ward barbecue hosted by a friend.
Philip was raised Anglican but drifted away from church as a teenager. Eventually, he prayed for guidance and was invited to the barbecue, then he attended church with that family that Sunday. After several months attending church and early morning seminary, he and his parents both felt good about him joining the church. During the fall of his junior year, Philip was baptized. He was drawn to BYU partly because it was different from his hometown, but it was hard to move to a whole new continent so far from family and friends. Fortunately, picking his major was an easy decision: he knew he wanted to study mechanical engineering. After serving a mission in London, England, he finished his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at BYU and moved straight on to his doctorate program, working on satellites that arrive in space folded and unfold to do their work. They need to be perfectly flat in order to function properly–a fraction of a degree off, and the expensive satellite doesn’t work.
Recently, NASA awarded Philip with a highly sought-after fellowship; he gets research opportunities with NASA and funding for his education, research, and living expenses. This way, he can make ends meet, which is nice when you’ve got a two-year-old toddler and a newborn baby. Beyond that though, he gets to work in a NASA center of his choice and work with experts there, and this could lead to future job opportunities with NASA.
Philip first started applying for fellowships during his senior year. He spent a lot of time –two years in a row–on his research application for the National Science Fellowship but was only given an honorable mention each time. Then he heard about the NASA fellowship, but he only had a week to work on his application. He did his best and turned it in, and he got it.
Perhaps Philip Klocke’s life can be “likened unto” the origami satellites he works on. God doesn’t want him one degree off His plan. He wanted Philip to be here at BYU doing his cool origami work with this specific fellowship. He engineered his life with great purpose in mind, and God is a master engineer.