Award Announcements AIAA Announces 2025 Premier Award Winners

2025 Premier Award Winners: (top, L to R): Jeffrey Bezos, Vigor Yang, Basil Hassan, Christopher John Ruscher, Hitoshi Kuninaka, Gökçin Çınar, Bhavya Lal, and Stephen Tsai. Credit: AIAA

AIAA is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the AIAA Premier Awards, recognizing the most influential and inspiring individuals in aerospace whose outstanding contributions merit the highest accolades. The awards will be presented during the AIAA Awards Gala on Wednesday, 30 April, at the Washington Hilton, Washington, DC. The Institute also will recognize its Class of 2025 Honorary Fellows and Fellows at the AIAA Awards Gala. The winners are:

AIAA Goddard Astronautics Award
Jeffrey P. Bezos, Founder,
Blue Origin “For visionary leadership in moving us toward a future where millions of people are living and working in space for the benefit of humanity.”

AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award
Vigor Yang, Ralph N. Read Chair and Regents’ Professor, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology “For seminal contributions to the understanding of combustion physics in aerospace systems, to technological innovation in aerospace propulsion, and to the advancement of aerospace engineering education and literature.”

AIAA Distinguished Service Award
Basil Hassan, Director, Engineering Sciences Center, Sandia National Laboratories “For more than three decades of exemplary service at the national, technical, and regional levels, as well as with Publications, Honors and Awards, and the AIAA Foundation.”

AIAA Engineer of the Year Award
Christopher John Ruscher, Vice President and Senior Research Engineer, Spectral Energies, LLC “For the design, development, integration, and demonstration of a robust pressure sensor on a hypersonic sounding rocket and F404 engine test.”

AIAA International Cooperation Award
Hitoshi Kuninaka, Director General, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and Vice President, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) “For fundamental contributions to electric propulsion and leadership of the world’s first asteroid sample return missions, as well as for fostering international cooperation and public interest in space exploration.”

AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award
Gökçin Çınar, Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan “For pioneering research and innovative contributions to electrified aircraft systems and sustainable aviation.”

AIAA Public Service Award
Bhavya Lal, former NASA Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy, NASA Headquarters (retired) “For lasting and sustained leadership in national space policy and setting the course for NASA’s future missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.”

Daniel Guggenheim Medal (Sponsored by AIAA, ASME, SAE International, and the Vertical Flight Society)
Stephen W. Tsai, Research Professor, Emeritus, Stanford University “For foundational contributions to the mechanics of composites over a distinguished 60-year career, resulting in laminate theory and failure criteria that are the basis of modern aerospace composite structures.”

For more information on the AIAA Honors and Awards Program, contact Patricia A. Carr at patriciac@aiaa.org.

AIAA Associate Fellows Class of 2025 Associate Fellows

Class of 2025 AIAA Associate Fellows, 8 January 2025. Credit: AIAA

AIAA formally honored and inducted the Class of 2025 AIAA Associate Fellows at AIAA SciTech Forum in January.

AIAA Announcements AIAA Announces New International Section

AIAA provisionally chartered the UK Section during the 2025 AIAA SciTech Forum. Credit: AIAA

AIAA has provisionally chartered a new section in the United Kingdom. The AIAA UK Section is located within Region VII and includes members living in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The section will be given a one-year period to host events, activities, and programming to ensure it’s a sustainable professional section before receiving full charter status.

The addition of the UK Section brings the global total of AIAA sections to 58. Sections are led by AIAA members who volunteer to organize and offer technical programs, networking, educational opportunities, and other activities tailored to local aerospace professionals, students, and educators.

AIAA Student Branches New Student Branches

AIAA is excited to welcome the addition of seven new student branches for provisional charter. The universities include:

• Institut Teknologi Bandung (Indonesia)
• King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia)
• M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences (India)
• Military Institute of Science and Technology (Bangladesh)
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (United States)
• TED University (Turkey)
• University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

The universities have a three-year period to ensure they are a sustainable branch before being officially chartered as a student branch.

AIAA Foundation Making an Impact: AIAA Announces 2025 International Student Conference Winners

2025 AIAA International Student Conference Team and Masters winners with Laura McGill, AIAA Foundation Chair (left), and Jane Hansen (right). Undergraduate winner not pictured. Credit: AIAA

AIAA has announced the 2025 International Student Conference winners in partnership with the AIAA Foundation. On 6 January, during the 2025 AIAA SciTech Forum, 20 technical paper first-place finalists from all seven 2024 AIAA Regional Student Conferences and the PEGASUS – Europe Conference presented their research papers related to aeronautics and astronautics.

The International Student Conference is an invitation-only event contained within the annual AIAA SciTech Forum, where first-place winners from each of the previous year’s AIAA Regional Student Conferences present their winning papers. They are judged by a panel of AIAA professional members in the undergraduate, master’s, and team categories. AIAA Foundation awards a $1,000 cash prize to each category’s first-place winner. All participants’ papers are published as part of the AIAA SciTech Forum proceedings and become part of the enduring aerospace industry technical archive found in AIAA’s Aerospace Research Central (ARC).

2025 International Student Conference Winners

Undergraduate Category
1st Place: “Experimental Investigation of the Impact of Propeller Configuration, Motor Noise, and Sound Reflection on Sound Pressure Level” by Olivia Hilburn, United States Air Force Academy

Master’s Category
1st Place: “Performance Characteristics of a Low-Cost Self-Contained Pressure Data Acquisition System” by Nathan Eller, California State Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Team Category
1st Place: “Lessons Learned from the Launch of a Student-Built LOX/Jet-A Sounding Rocket” by Callum MacDonald, Rithvik Nagarajan, Ethan Heyns, Braden Anderson, Michael Krause, Varun Natarajan, Anthony Otlowski, and Tristan Terry, Georgia Institute of Technology

AIAA Foundation Making an Impact at AIAA SciTech Forum: K-12 Educator Workshop Prepares Educators to Inspire the Next Generation of Students

Educators participated in hands-on experiments and learned best practices for teaching the next generation about STEM. Credit: AIAA

On Monday, 6 January, AIAA SciTech Forum featured a K-12 Educator Workshop organized by the AIAA STEM K–12 Outreach Committee. For the third year, teachers were invited to gather, network, and hear firsthand from inspiring speakers in their field. Sessions included presenters from ARISS – Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, the Wolfpack CubeSat Dev Team/BLUECUBE Aerospace, Brigantine Community Schools, National Space Society, Reach for the Stars National Rocket Competition, and Civil Air Patrol.

Cost-effective hands-on activities were demonstrated and available for attendees to try out for themselves, while discussions included best practices and advice on navigating grants, scholarships, and educational tools from AIAA and other organizations. Two presenters from Brigantine Community Schools in New Jersey shared details about a Space Day outreach event they recently held at their school, which they organized after they attended the 2024 K-12 Educator Workshop and got inspired.

For more information about future STEM outreach events, email: K-12STEM@aiaa.org.

Committee News Technical Committees Spark Interest in Aerospace Among Middle Schoolers During AIAA SciTech Forum

AIAA TC members attended Walker Middle School in Orlando for their annual STEM outreach event. Credit: AIAA

On Thursday, 9 January, AIAA Technical Committee (TC) members attended Walker Middle School in Orlando for their annual STEM outreach event. Organized by the Structural Dynamics TC and Structures TC, the event introduced principles of aerospace engineering to 120 students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade through hands-on activities.

The excited students passed through seven different demo stations where they got to experience Chladni plates, acoustics tubes and resonance boxes, vibration shakers with vibrating beams, and scale models of airplane wings. The students appreciated hearing directly from the professionals, learning about the presenters’ jobs, where they were from, and what they had studied in high school and college to get to where they are today.

All the students took home swag provided by AIAA and a number of generous exhibitors from the AIAA SciTech Forum Expo Hall who gifted giveaways to the kids.

Obituary AIAA Senior Member Yeager Died in 2023

Walter C. Yeager died in 2023 at the age of 87.

Yeager earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1958, and a certificate in Propulsion and Power Conversion from UCLA in 1970. He was a licensed Safety Engineer in California.

Yeager began his 40-year engineering career at Douglas Aircraft in California, where he worked on the liquid oxygen tank vent and relief valve for the Thor missile, and on the design of propulsion for the Skybolt missile. He then spent several years activating Atlas missile bases in Kansas and Nebraska before working on the Nuclear Engine Rocket Vehicle Application project for interplanetary space vehicles at the Bendix Corporation in Indiana.

Returning to California, Yeager worked at Hughes Aircraft on vernier propulsion for the Surveyor spacecraft and thruster rockets for synchronous orbit satellites. The remainder of his career was spent at Garrett AiResearch, which was a subsidiary of the Signal Corporation, and which eventually became Honeywell.

He began work on a business jet advanced turbofan propulsion engine and turbochargers for small aircraft as an engineer. He then became director of Product Integrity and later was a program manager for emergency power and start systems in over 27 aircraft programs, which included the hydrazine F-16 emergency power units and the U2 in-flight start systems. These projects involved travel to Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. After retiring in 1999, he kept busy by doing engineering consulting, pursuing his computer and electronics hobbies, and actively managing his farm in Indiana.

Obituary AIAA Fellow Lang Died in November 2024

James D. Lang. Credit: Lang Family

James D. Lang died on 15 November 2024. He was 82 years old.

Lang graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1963, with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. Lang pursued advanced studies that reflected his passion for aerospace innovation, earning an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Aerodynamics from Cranfield Institute of Technology in England.

Lang served in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years. He flew 320 combat missions as a Forward Air Controller during the Vietnam War and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Purple Heart, two Meritorious Service Medals, and 16 Air Medals for his valor and dedication. He served as an Associate Professor of Aeronautics at the Air Force Academy for six years and spent the remainder of his military career at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Aeronautical Systems Division as an Engineering Test Pilot, Chief of the Avionics Laboratory, and Deputy for Engineering. He retired in 1988 as a Colonel having been awarded the Legion of Merit.

Following his military service, Lang joined Boeing (and McDonnell Douglas) for 11 years of in the roles of chief engineer of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP), the F-15 “Eagle”, and F-4 “Phantom” programs. In 1999 he retired as director of Technology Development in the Phantom Works organization. He served on the USAF Scientific Advisory Board and was recognized as a Fellow of both AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society.

After his second retirement he taught in the Aerospace Engineering department at the University of California, San Diego, in addition to acting as Principal Investigator a DARPA flight test program.

A long-time member of AIAA, Lang was a member of the Committee on Higher Education, the Honors and Awards Committee, the Technical Activities Committee, as well as serving on the Board of Directors. He received the AIAA Sustained Service Award in 2001.

Obituary AIAA Senior Member Figler Died in December 2024

Burton D. Figler died on 8 December 2024.

Figler received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from MIT in Aeronautics and Astronautics and then an MBA from Northeastern University. Until his retirement, he worked primarily in the field of electro-optics at MIT, Sanders Associates, TechOps, Aerodyne Products Corporation, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Loral, and BAE Systems.

Figler was a member of AIAA, National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), American Army Aviation Association (AAAA), Association of Old Crows (AOD), and Society of Photographic and Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Obituary AIAA Honorary Fellow Loewy Died in January 2025

Robert G. Loewy. Credit: Loewy Family

Robert G. Loewy died on 3 January 2025. He was 98 years old.

Loewy’s childhood fascination with airplanes led to an extraordinary career that contributed to many revolutionary advances in aerospace engineering. He joined the U.S. Navy’s Officer Training program, which sent him to Cornell University and then Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) for his bachelor’s degree, and to MIT for his M.S. in Aerospace Engineering.

Loewy first pursued his professional career in applied engineering at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories, where he developed a rotary wing unsteady aerodynamic model, a groundbreaking contribution to rotorcraft aerodynamics. This model, referred to as “Loewy’s rotary wing theory,” became a cornerstone for understanding the forces acting on helicopter rotor blades. He then moved to the Vertol Division of Boeing where he rose to the position of Chief Technical Engineer while completing his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. Loewy was appointed Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force under President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, and afterward served as Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Rochester. In 1974, he became Vice President and Provost at RPI, where he founded a Rotorcraft Technology Center of Excellence established by the Army Research Office. After serving as provost, he became the school’s Institute Professor and Director of the Center. In 1993, Loewy assumed the positions of Chair of the Aerospace Engineering School and William R. T. Oaks Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where there is now a library and a lecture series that bear his name. He retired in 2008.

Loewy was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the engineering of rotary-wing, vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and he was a Class of 1993 AIAA Honorary Fellow. He was recognized with the 1958 Lawrence Sperry Award for his work on rotary-wing aircraft, the 1999 Dryden Lectureship in Research (Avionics: A “New” Senior Partner in Aeronautics), and the 2006 Daniel Guggenheim Medal for pioneering contributions to rotary-wing aeroelasticity and unsteady aerodynamics that had an enormous influence on rotary-wing technology and his contributions to education and public service in aeronautics. Loewy also was a recipient of the Spirit of St. Louis Medal given by ASME and the Nikolsky Memorial Lecturer awarded by the Vertical Flight Society.

An AIAA member since 1944, Loewy was participated in the Institute as a member of the Aerospace Department Chair Association, Honors and Awards Committee, and Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee. He had been an editor of the AIAA Education Series and an editorial advisor to the AIAA Journal.