I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.

Ayden Kemp embodied the Auburn Creed before he knew Auburn was the perfect place for him. Growing up in a military family full of aerospace engineers, he already knew what it meant to believe in work, hard work. 

Kemp graduated in May of 2024 with a biosystems engineering degree and will begin his master’s degree in the same field this fall. He will also earn a second undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering in the spring of 2025. Kemp plans to continue this trend by finishing his biosystems engineering master’s degree in the fall of 2026. 

Because he can’t get enough Auburn, Kemp plans to obtain his doctorate in biosystems engineering afterward. 

“I love Auburn. I love all the opportunities I have,” Kemp said. “It just makes sense because if I stay here, then I can finish my Ph.D. in three to four years, as opposed to going somewhere else and needing four to five years.”

He’s a Goldwater Scholar and an Astronaut Scholar, so what’s next for Ayden Kemp? He wants to sustain life for humans in space while minimizing waste in spacecraft. His current research focuses on creating biofuels from waste materials — basically, rocket fuel from plastic and biomass. 

A fourth-generation aerospace engineer and the son of a U.S. Air Force pilot, Kemp found that Auburn had unlimited opportunities to pursue all the dreams he could imagine.