AIAA is seeking an outstanding candidate with an international reputation for this position to assume the responsibilities of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets in early 2017.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the journal’s quality and reputation as well as establishing a strategic vision for the journal. He or she receives manuscripts, assigns them to Associate Editors for review and evaluation, and monitors the performance of the Associate Editors to ensure that the manuscripts are processed in a fair and timely manner. The Editor-in-Chief works closely with AIAA Headquarters staff on both general procedures and the scheduling of specific issues. Detailed record keeping and prompt actions are required. AIAA provides all appropriate resources including a web-based manuscript-tracking system.

Interested candidates are invited to submit resumes and letters of application for consideration. A selection committee will seek candidates and review all applications received. A final recommendation will be made to the AIAA Board of Directors for approval. This is an open process, and the final selection will be made only on the basis of the applicants’ merits. All candidates will be notified of the final decision. Questions may be referred to Heather Brennan, Director, Publications, at [email protected].

Complete application requirements and submission deadlines are available in Aerospace Research Central http://arc.aiaa.org under Featured Content on the home page and also on the landing page for Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets: http://arc.aiaa.org/loi/jsr.

On 2 July 2016 the guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) community lost its eminent ambassador, with the passing of Rudolf Emil Kálmán. Although Kálmán made significant advances to general control and estimation theory, his greatest legacy is the invention of the legendary “Kalman filter,” first published in 1960. The Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics (JGCD) will dedicate a special issue on “The Kalman Filter and Its Aerospace Applications.” The focus of the special issue is specifically targeted to novel aerospace GN&C applications involving the Kalman filter. The applied research paper must address original and/or unique uses of the Kalman filter.

More information as well as guidelines for preparing your manuscript can be found in the full Call for Papers on the journal website in Aerospace Research Central http://arc.aiaa.org/loi/jgcd.Deadline: 1 December 2016 with prior approval of the Guest Editor

Contact Email: John L. Crassidis, Guest Editor ([email protected]) Ping Lu, Editor-in-Chief of JGCD ([email protected]).

The 20th annual Congressional Visits Day (CVD) Program will take place Wednesday, 29 March 2017, on Capitol Hill. AIAA will once again offer limited subsidies to assist members in their efforts to attend CVD. Registration will open later this fall.

The K–12 STEM Outreach Committee would like to recognize outstanding STEM events in each section. Each month we will highlight an outstanding K–12 STEM activity; if your section would like to be featured, please contact Supriya Banerjee ([email protected]) and Angela Diggs ([email protected]).

On 14–15 June, the Tennessee Section, in partnership with the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) and the Tullahoma Hands On Science Center (HOSC), conducted our first workshop for STEM teachers: “Teach the SpEcTruM.” Nine teachers from the surrounding area attended the event, which included tours of the UTSI laboratories, a visit to the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) STEM outreach, HOSC, and the STEM Lending Library from Tennessee Technological University (TTU). Carole Thomas (UTSI program manager for STEM Outreach), Jim Burns (AIAA Tennessee Section Education Outreach), Dr. Pat Murphy (HOSC director), and Jere Matty (AEDC STEM coordinator) developed this initiative to bring their combined resources together to grow STEM interest among students, and provide teachers with insight into local STEM facilities and support from the organizations.

During the two days the teachers had the opportunity to assemble and try out a large variety STEM kits provided by the Millard Oakley STEM Center at TTU. These kits are provided for teachers to check out for two weeks of classroom use and provide everything from mechanical and electronic demonstrations, sensors, math manipulatives, and Lego Mindstorms. The teachers also participated in space-themed educational activities where they competed in teams to be the first to complete a space mission.

The teachers had several sessions on exciting classroom presentations for STEM. Kellye Burns, a junior at ClemsonUniversity and summer intern at HOSC, presented a session on spectral color mixing using a kit containing LED light sources and optics. Excitement grew when Katrina Sweetland, UTSI Space Grant research assistant, presented information about the solar observatory under development at UTSI. The solar observatory will track the sun and provide livefeed images to a website that will be available to the public. Educators and students will be able to request an account that will allow them to capture images of the sun, track sunspots and other solar activity and use them in the classroom or after-school clubs.

As a culminating event, Dr. Joe Sheeley, AIAA Tennessee Section chair, presented a session on using soda straw rockets and a launcher kit as a way to teach math and statistics. He provided insight into how the same basic kit could be used for simple angles and distances in elementary classrooms to in-depth statistical analysis at the high-school level.

Tennessee is changing its state standards to Next Generation Science Standards and the teachers have asked for our help aligning Continuing Education with the new standards, and bringing more themed modules to them. We look forward to an exciting and bigger event next year.