AIAA Announcements AIAA Announces President-Elect Candidate for 2023 Election

The Executive Nominating Committee has selected a candidate for next year’s election of AIAA President-Elect:
Daniel E. Hastings, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

AIAA Announcements Nominations for AIAA Board of Trustees – AIAA Treasurer-Elect Are Being Accepted Through 27 January 2023

The AIAA Executive Nominating Committee (ENC) will compile a list of potential nominees for the Board of Trustees – AIAA Treasurer-Elect position. The list will include nominees who will be selected to go to the next step of competency review and interview held by the nominating committee. The ENC will select specific candidates for the Institute’s Board of Trustees – Treasurer-Elect in February 2023. The Board of Trustees – AIAA Treasurer-Elect will be elected by the AIAA Board of Trustees in March 2023 and announced soon thereafter.

Treasurer-Elect is a one-year term, and the Treasurer-Elect will automatically ascend to the position of Treasurer at the end of the term as Treasurer-Elect. The Treasurer-Elect will be a non-voting, non-officer position on the Board of Trustees. The Treasurer-Elect position will provide for a one-year overlap with the incumbent Treasurer, thus providing time for training and familiarization of the Treasurer-Elect with the Institute’s financial operations. The Treasurer-Elect’s term of office shall begin May 2023 and shall end at the conclusion of the first Board meeting one year from that date in May 2024.

The Treasurer shall be a member of the Board. The Treasurer shall cause to be kept adequate and proper accounts of the properties, funds, and records of AIAA and shall perform such other duties as prescribed by the Board. The Treasurer’s term of office shall begin at the conclusion of the term of the Treasurer-Elect in May 2024, at which time the Treasurer-Elect ascends to the office of Treasurer, and shall end at the conclusion of the first Board meeting three years from that date, or when a successor is seated. The Treasurer may serve no more than one (1) consecutive term.

In addition to the duties and responsibilities of the Treasurer-Elect and Treasurer, the skills and competencies being sought for the Board of Trustees are:

• Vision: Persons who have the ability to understand present states, clearly define what they should be in the future, and identify steps to achieve those ends.

• Diverse Business Acumen: Persons who have the knowledge and understanding of the financial, accounting, marketing, communications, human resources, policy, and operational functions of an organization as well as the ability to make good judgments and quick decisions.

• Domestic and International Aerospace Knowledge and Experience: Board membership reflects: a) the breadth of the various major sectors of aerospace both domestic and international; b) all levels of technology and systems development from basic research through all technology readiness levels to product development and deployment; and c) the different disciplines within aerospace.

• Leadership/Strategy/Execution: Persons who have the ability to create a shared vision, obtain participation and buy-in, and achieve successful results.

• AIAA Leadership and Participation: Board membership reflects experience in successful participation in a wide variety of leadership positions within AIAA, as well as knowledge of the governance model.

• Experience in Adjacent Aerospace Areas: As the Institute broadens its reach beyond the traditional “Breguet Equation” disciplines, Board members who have experience and strategic perspectives in these adjacent areas will broaden the Board’s view on new and emerging areas.

• Young Member Knowledge and Experience: As the Institute evolves, it is important that Board members have knowledge and understanding of issues relevant to young members in the aerospace industry.

• Experience with Organizational Growth: Persons with experience in significantly growing organizations will serve as a resource to the Board as the Institute seeks to grow.

• Experience with Change or Transition Management: Board members with prior experience in organizational change or transition will serve as a vital resource to the Board as it seeks to execute its role.

• Demographic Diversity: In addition to reflecting the membership’s diversity in the industry and volunteer involvement, it is important that the new Board membership be seen as reflecting demographic diversity (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age, etc.) as well.

AIAA members may nominate qualified individuals for the AIAA Board of Trustees – AIAA Treasurer-Elect position by submitting a nomination package of not more than three pages consisting of:

• Nominee’s Bio and/or CV and history of AIAA activities and/or engagement with other professional societies
• Statement from the nominee addressing how he/she meets the sought competencies
• Statement from the nominee of willingness and ability to serve if elected

Please submit the nomination package directly at
aiaa-awards.org/a/solicitations/1285/home no later than 27 January 2023, 1800 hrs ET.

AIAA Foundation Making an Impact: A Year in Review

FH Joanneum University, first-place winners at the 2022 Design/Build/Fly; 2022 ASCEND Diversity Scholars; 2022 Trailblazing STEM Educators in Astronaut Village, Van Horn, Texas, before the Blue Origin NS-22 launch; and middle school students from the Flathead Reservation in Montana attend Students To Launch. Credit: AIAA

What an exciting year 2022 has been! AIAA returned to hosting in-person events and we have been thrilled to see the impact of the AIAA Foundation’s work in action.

The AIAA Foundation proudly supported:

• 587 students at seven Regional Student Conferences
• 53 students through the Diversity Scholars Program at AIAA SciTech Forum, AIAA AVIATION Forum, and ASCEND
• 2,083 students through Design/Build/Fly and Design Competitions
• 25 students received $100,000 in scholarships and graduate awards; educators received $40,000 in educator grants

We also have formed some exciting new partnerships that we believe are going to enhance our efforts to reach students at the K-12 level.

• The ExGen program is the product of a partnership with AIAA Corporate Member Estes Rockets and the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) and provides K-12 educators with free, engaging classroom-ready lessons and curriculum storylines to help immerse students in real-life applications of STEM while exploring various concepts in aerospace, engineering, and rocketry. The first full unit was launched in October. Learn more at nsta.org/exploration-generation.

• Students To Launch (S2L), created in partnership with First Light, Griffin Communications Group, and Oregon State University, inspires middle and high school students with the wonders of space. With a focus on those in underrepresented and underserved communities, S2L invites students from across the country to engage in NASA mission-inspired events—from hands-on after-school activities to attending rocket launches at NASA Kennedy Space Center. Our goal is to give these students the chance to see themselves in exciting STEM-focused careers. Find out more at studentstolaunch.org.

• Trailblazing STEM Educator Award is presented in partnership with Challenger Center. This annual award celebrates K-12 teachers going above and beyond to inspire the next generation of explorers and innovators. The nomination period for 2023 closes on 15 December.

2022 AIAA Foundation Day of Giving

Invest in the next generation by contributing to the first-ever AIAA Foundation Day of Giving on 17 December. We chose this special day to honor the past on the anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight, while looking toward the future led by the next generation of innovators and explorers. Help us reach our goal of raising $75,000 to support scholarships and K-12 and university programs. With your support, we are looking forward to making an even bigger impact next year!

AIAA Foundation AIAA Diversity Scholars at ASCEND

AIAA Diversity Scholars at 2022 ASCEND. Credit: AIAA

We welcomed 27 Diversity Scholars to 2022 ASCEND thanks to generous sponsorship from The Boeing Company and the grant received from Blue Origin’s Club for the Future. Of the group, 67% were first-generation college students, and 24 scholars were female or female-identifying. Scholars heard from industry leaders and participated in networking events where they made valuable connections with those leading the future of innovation in the commercial space sector. Learn more at: aiaa.org/DiversityScholarsProgram. AIAA Diversity Scholar applications for the 2023 AIAA AVIATION Forum will open on 16 January 2023.

Section News Aerospace and Aviation Enthusiasts Compete in Online “Buzzword” Challenge

Winners of the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section’s (GHS) Buzzword challenge. Credit: AIAA GHS

By Robin Osborne, Pre-College Outreach Director, AIAA Greater Huntsville Section

Congratulations to the high-flying winners of the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section’s (GHS) Buzzword challenge, a 50-question online game that covered aerospace and aviation topics in history, pop culture, science and technology, current events, literature, fine arts, and geography. The game, which drew over 400 players worldwide, was active 15–20 September to celebrate the launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission.

Andrew Gao, an 8th grader at Chenery Middle School in Massachusetts, soared to the top of the middle school division. A quiz bowl enthusiast, Andrew also enjoys watching rocket launches—especially the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which fell on his 11th birthday.

Ethan Burks’ stellar performance landed him top honors in the high school division. A homeschooled senior who competes in quiz bowl through the Norfolk Academic Guild in Virginia, Ethan loves rocketry and “the engineering behind it” and plans to study aeronautical or astronautical engineering in college.

Sarah Mueller from Virginia and Alex Pyle from New York were “co-pilots” in victory in the college division. Sarah is a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she also plays on their quiz bowl team. “As a kid, I used to be scared of flying, and decided to face that fear by learning all I could about airplanes.” Sarah has a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University.

Alex is a student at State University of New York at Binghamton, working toward a bachelor’s degree in applied physics, and plans to pursue a graduate degree in materials science. He previously played quiz bowl in high school. Alex says he’s an “eclipse chaser,” having seen one total solar and five total lunar eclipses.

The “Top Guns” in the open division were Andre LeClair, Shae Williams, and Joe Nutter. Andre is an aerospace engineer doing system-level thermo-fluid modeling at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, as well as a master’s and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Shae is an aerospace engineer and member of the AIAA Niagara Frontier Section. He works at Moog in New York, after receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgia Tech, and a Ph.D. from Purdue University. He played quiz bowl while at Georgia Tech.

Joe was both the open division top scorer and the overall top scorer. He is a management consultant and aviation enthusiast based in Georgia. In his free time, he is a student pilot, working to finish qualifying for his pilot’s license. Joe has had a lifelong fascination with air and space flight. He studied physics and economics at Michigan State University. Like all our other winners, he played quiz bowl competitively.

The unique game was sponsored by The Boeing Company, and questions were written and recorded by National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) on their Buzzword platform. The winners received personalized, engraved rocket-themed trophies.

Section News AIAA Sections Participate in SmallSat Education Conference

AIAA sections participate in SmallSat Education Conference. Credit: AIAA

The inaugural SmallSat Education Conference, held 29–30 October at the Kennedy Space Center, FL, gathered over 240 educators, administrators, and students to learn about CubeSats, ThinSats, and high altitude balloon programs. The conference provided hands-on opportunities for educators and students from middle school through college who are interested in accessing low Earth orbit to learn how they may “Go To Space”.

This event was managed by the Aerospace and Innovation Academy, The Wolfpack CubeSat Development Team, and BLUECUBE Aerospace. The AIAA Cape Canaveral Section and the AIAA Palm Beach Section both sponsored and participated in this event.

This successful event will be held again in October 2023; more information can be found at smallsateducation.org.

Section News Niagara Frontier Section Commemorates Bell X-1 75th Anniversary

A photo of the loading pit where the aircraft was loaded onto the B-29 carrier aircraft. The pit was only recently rediscovered. The commemorate coin was given to guests. Credit: AIAA Niagara Frontier Section

On 14 October the AIAA Niagara Frontier Section held an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Bell X-1 breaking the sound barrier. Over 100 participants, including 39 students predominantly from the AIAA University at Buffalo Student Branch, attended the event held in the Calspan’s Flight Research hangar surrounded by their experimental variable stability aircraft. The hangar is within several hundred yards of the Bell plant, an AIAA Historic Site, where the X-1, the very first X-plane (then known as the XS-1 for eXperimental Supersonic), was designed and built.

The keynote speaker was Richard Hallion, past Chief Historian of the U.S. Air Force and author of numerous books and articles on the X-1 and supersonic flight. He spoke on “Buffalo, Bell, and the XS-1: A 75th Anniversary Perspective.” Hallion was introduced by Bill Barry, past NASA Chief Historian, who discussed the roots of Dr. Hallion’s X-1 research in the NASA History Office. Also in attendance was William Swenson, age 100, a Bell instrumentation engineer who worked on the Bell X-1 from the inception of the program in 1945.

Attendees also had a chance to go on a walking tour to the actual site of the loading pit where the aircraft was loaded onto the B-29 carrier aircraft. The pit was only recently rediscovered and marked by the Niagara Frontier Section and Niagara Aerospace Museum.

AIAA Announcements AIAA Standard for Public Review

AIAA S-113A-2016, Criteria for Explosive Systems and Devices on Space and Launch Vehicles, is being revised as AIAA S-113B-202X. The draft is ready for Public Review. If you wish to review the draft, please contact Nick Tongson (nickt@aiaa.org) for a copy. Comment deadline is 30 December 2022.

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Burkhalter Died in March 2020

John E. Burkhalter died on 12 March 2020. He was 80 years old.

As a teenager, Burkhalter developed a fascination for airplanes and how they operated, which led him to pursue Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University. He taught at Auburn briefly, and working with Professor Malcolm Cutchins he developed an “Aerial Row Seeder and Method,” which was eventually patented.

After completing a year of postgraduate work at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Burkhalter enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the University of Texas at Austin. He studied heart-related problems and developed a viscous flow solution for flow in a tube for his dissertation. He participated materially in designing and patenting an artificial heart (a “Cardiac Replacement Pumping Device,” which was successfully tested in a cow). Burkhalter received a Ph.D. in Engineering in 1972.

Burkhalter returned to Auburn as a Professor of Aerospace Engineering. During his career at Auburn, he published over 60 refereed journal articles and papers. In 1979, he and his Ph.D. student James Purvis published an article in the AIAA Journal titled, “Prediction of Critical Mach Number for Store Configurations.” In that article, they discussed the first use of “cut cells” for numerically solving the equations for fluid motion. This technology is now world-renowned as one of the critical enabling technologies of modern computational fluid dynamics.

In the 1980s, Burkhalter and his students, under contract with the Department of Defense, pioneered the methods necessary to analyze, design, and optimize grid fins with primary use in missile systems. Grid fins proved essential to several innovative and highly effective missile systems, including the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB).

Burkhalter also developed novel techniques to analyze spinning tails on supersonic missiles and became the curator of a tool known as AERODSN for predicting the aerodynamics of a complete missile system. He spent 15 months in the early 1990s conducting research on unsteady aerodynamics at the Air Force Academy. His expertise and seminal papers in the field of subsonic aircraft aerodynamics earned him a position as chair of the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee (1994–1994).

Beginning in the late 1990s Burkhalter and his students introduced an optimization method based on genetic algorithms to the missile system design community. The introduction of binary encoded genetic algorithms significantly advanced the state of the art for missile system engineering, including the reverse engineering of foreign missile systems.

During his final years as professor and educator, he served as Associate Department Head of Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University. He retired as a Professor Emeritus in 2004, but remained very active in missile system design and aerodynamics projects. In 2014, Burkhalter joined the Research in Flight Company and served as the principal investigator on four NASA SBIR projects, which led to the development of a surface vorticity solver for subsonic aircraft aerodynamics known as FlightStream™. Burkhalter drew on his career-long body of work in vortex dynamics to lead an effort that has produced a cutting-edge commercial tool for aircraft design. Until the beginning of 2020, he continued to contribute substantially to the development of FlightStream, thus producing valuable solutions to the associated aerodynamics problems.

Throughout his career, Burkhalter was sought as a consultant, serving the Army over many summer semesters, Dynetics, Support Systems Associates, Summit Inc., Boeing, NASA, and the Air Force. He spoke regularly at conferences, Department of Defense laboratories, and short course venues. As a professor, he was constantly thinking of ways to better illustrate a point, conceive a better project to assign, or develop better tools to share. For his efforts, he was awarded the Birdsong Merit Teaching Award (1996) and the Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award (2000–2001, 2003–2004) along with many other accolades. His greatest legacy resides in his students and these include numerous members of the Greater Huntsville Section and AIAA members nationwide.

Obituary AIAA Fellow Khalil Died in September

Essam E. Khalil died in early September.

Khalil received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of London in 1977. He was a professor in the Mechanical Power Department at Cairo University and taught many classes in air conditioning for both university students and maintenance staff in industrial and commercial sectors in Egypt and worldwide. He was a guest lecturer on HVAC design and optimization, HVAC system management, energy utilization, waste heat recovery, plant management at universities and international organizations.

Khalil was the author and co-author of several international papers in the HVAC field. A Fellow of AIAA, ASME, and ASHRAE, Khalil also was honored with the 2010 AIAA Energy Systems Award and the 2011 Sustained Service Award. He was involved with many committees at AIAA, including the Green Engineering Integration and Outreach Committee and the Thermophysics, Terrestrial Energy Systems, and Gas Turbine Engines Technical Committees.

Obituary AIAA Honorary Fellow Heiser Died in October

William “Bill” Heiser, groundbreaking jet propulsion engineer and industry visionary, died on 26 September. He was 88 years old.

A pioneer in aircraft propulsion, Heiser designed some of the world’s most successful turbofan engines and advanced the nascent field of airbreathing hypersonics, holding leading posts at public and private institutions over a career that spanned more than 50 years.

Heiser graduated from Cooper Union, Caltech, and MIT on scholarships from Ford, Fulbright, and Hughes. By the time he entered industry he knew he would focus his career on jet engine propulsion.

After receiving his Ph.D. from MIT in 1962, he worked there as an assistant professor and postdoc researcher until he was recruited to become head of Turbine Technology at Pratt & Whitney in 1966. His often-cited 1967 paper on compressible flow (written with A. Bernstein and C. Hevenor) was a groundbreaking work in the field and was honored with 1968 AME Gas Turbine Award.

At Pratt & Whitney, Heiser was the first to use modern computational methods to design “controlled-vortex” turbines, which quickly became the industry standard due to their dramatic increase in power and efficiency. He led the first application of this technology in the world’s first high-bypass turbofan engine, the JT9D, which entered service in 1970 and went on to power the iconic Boeing 747. By 2020, the JT9D had flown over 169 million hours, covering tens of billions of miles. The JT9D’s revolutionary design enabled a dramatic increase in fuel efficiency, and its design pattern has been used across the entire aircraft industry over the following 50 years.

For his next big challenge, Heiser saw major opportunities for innovation in the defense industry. Starting in 1971, he served for eight years as chief scientist for the U.S. Air Force at its two largest laboratories. Heiser led advanced research and was a tireless advocate for the Aeropropulsion Systems Test Facility, which was approved in 1976. During this period he also was the lead investigator for the Air Force into jet engine failures in the field. His novel data-driven approach helped create a new, usage-based, durability-centered production development process that led to a 10-fold reduction in failures – saving lives, reducing costs, and increasing readiness for America’s fleet of military jets. He would continue on this mission for the rest of his career through his work on many advisory boards to the U.S. armed forces.

Over the next decade Heiser set about formalizing his broad experience into concrete frameworks that the entire industry could use to advance the field. Heiser joined Dave Pratt and Jack Mattingly to co-author the award-winning Aircraft Engine Design, the seminal work in parametric design of engines which was first published in 1987 and included its own software framework, AEDSys. Heiser again partnered with Pratt to create the award-winning textbook, Hypersonic Air Breathing Propulsion, in 1994, which established the basic equations and theoretical framework for the next generation of aircraft systems that fly across an entire continent in a single hour. During the latter part of his professional life, Heiser built a long-lasting partnership with the U.S. Air Force Academy where he was its very first civilian full professor in 1993, its first Professor Emeritus in 1997, and the founder of the Heiser Award for teaching excellence in 2000. During Heiser’s “retirement,” he continued to work on a wide range of private and public programs. He was a regular guest lecturer at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and would frequently teach short courses based on his books.

Throughout his career Heiser was an industry leader (General Electric, Aerojet, and Pratt & Whitney), a professor with a passion for teaching (MIT, Cambridge, UC Davis, and the USAF Academy), a visiting lecturer across the globe, an author of over 50 published papers and books, a patent holder, a chairman and member of many private and public advisory boards including the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board for over 25 years, and a consultant on the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Heiser was an AIAA Publications Committee member from 1987 to 2008, serving a term as vice president (1983–1987). He was the Vice President, Publications on the AIAA Board of Directors from 1985 to 1987. An AIAA Honorary Fellow, he was also a Fellow of AAAS and ASME.

He was honored with dozens of awards including the Air Force Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the 1996 Outstanding Career Civilian Service Award. AIAA recognized him with the 1988 Air Breathing Propulsion Award and he was the corecipient of the 1999 AIAA Summerfield Book Award for Hypersonic Air Breathing Propulsion (coauthored with David Pratt, Daniel Daley, and Unmeel Mehta) and the 2005 AIAA Summerfield Book Award for Aircraft Engine Design, Second Edition (coauthored with Jack D. Mattingly and David Pratt).

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Livingston Died in October

Louis E. Livingston Jr. passed away on 4 October. He was 93 years old.

Livingston earned his Bachelor’s Degree in 1949 from Yale University. He went to work for Boeing Airplane Company at their Kansas facility. In 1962, Livingston graduated from Rice University with a Master’s Degree, and went to work for NASA in Houston at their Manned Space Flight Center.

He was recognized with an AIAA Special Service Citation in 1992.

Obituary AIAA Fellow Frey Died in October

Dr. Thomas L. Frey Jr. Credit: AIAA

Dr. Thomas L. Frey Jr. died on 15 October after a long battle with cancer.

Frey attended the University of Houston and studied Electrical Engineering. In 1981, he left the university to pursue a career in music with his band Aerial. In 1983, he returned to engineering at Texas A&M and in 1985 completed a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering.

Frey accepted a position at General Dynamics, now Lockheed Martin, creating advanced technologies for the F-16, F-22, and F-35 fighter programs for over 37 years. In 1988 and 1995, he earned a master’s and Ph.D., respectively, in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington while working full time. Due to Frey’s outstanding technical accomplishments, he was selected as a Lockheed Martin (LM) Fellow in 2006 and Senior Fellow in 2013.

Over his career, he was recognized many times, including three Lockheed Martin Nova awards, the corporation’s highest honor. Those in senior company and government positions described him as the father of the F-35 Information Fusion system.

Frey was an active member in AIAA. He was instrumental in writing the charter for the Sensor Systems and Information Fusion Technical Committee and served as its chair from 2017 to 2019. He published over a dozen papers at AIAA SciTech Forum, most on the application of a biological mechanism called “stigmergy” applied to autonomous and distributed collaboration. His papers won the LM Aeronautics Best Technical Paper award in 2017 and the AIAA Best Technical Paper award in 2018. In 2019, Frey was a lead author in chapters covering Mission System Design and Information Fusion in the AIAA Progress Series book The F-35 Lightning II – From Concept to Cockpit. In 2022, Frey was named an AIAA Fellow “for nationally relevant advancement of the theory and practice of information fusion technology creating decisive air combat capability for the U.S. and allied forces.”

Despite these professional accomplishments and accolades, Frey’s greatest legacy will forever be in the way he encouraged and touched the lives of others, including mentoring many Eagle Scouts, Lockheed Martin Fellows, college students and early career professionals.

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Pepper Died in October

Darrell W. Pepper died on 18 October. He was 76 years old.

Pepper received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1968), his M.S. in Aerospace Engineering (1970), and his Ph.D. (1973) all from the University of Missouri–Rolla. Following graduation in 1973 and a postdoctoral in 1974, Pepper joined E. I. Du Pont, Savannah River Laboratory, where he served in various technical and management positions. In 1987, he was appointed chief scientist of The Marquardt Company and worked on the National Aerospace Plane program.

In 1988, he co-founded Advanced Projects Research, Inc, and in 1990 was appointed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at California State University Northridge. He joined the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) in 1992, and was appointed Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department and also founded the Nevada Center for Advanced Computational Methods in 1996. In 2002, he was appointed Interim Dean of the College of Engineering.

In 2001 Pepper founded Nevada Energy and Environmental Systems, a small engineering consulting company. In 2004, he served as an ASME Congressional Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in Washington, DC, where he handled science and technology issues. He also spent time as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Pepper was recognized for his work with many awards, including the international 2008 Eric Reissner Medal from the International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES) for his work in computational heat transfer and the Harry Reid Silver State Research Award from UNLV in 2010. He was also the recipient of the 2015 ICCES Lifetime Achievement Medal for seminal contributions to computational environmental fluid dynamics.

An active AIAA member Pepper served for many years on the Thermophysics Technical Committee and the Terrestrial Energy Systems Technical Committee (serving as chair from 2019 to 2021). He was the faculty advisor of the AIAA UNLV Student Branch from 2013 to 2019, and a member of the Propulsion and Energy Group from 2019 to 2021. Pepper was recognized by AIAA for his work with a 2011 AIAA Sustained Service Award and the 2012 AIAA Energy Systems Award.