New Graduate Award Honors Influential Professor Hassan A. Hassan Written 7 May 2019
CONTACT: Michele McDonald
703.264.7542
michelem@aiaa.org
May 7, 2019 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation thanks the family and friends of Dr. Hassan A. Hassan for contributing to a new graduate award in aerospace engineering in his name.
Dr. Hassan, 87, established the Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Graduate Award in Aerospace Engineering shortly before his passing on January 12, 2019.
Dr. Hassan joined AIAA in 1956, become a Fellow in 2006, served on numerous committees, and attended the majority of the Institute’s large conferences and forums for decades. He also was a distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and helped create NCSU’s aerospace engineering program.
The Hassan Graduate Award is designed to entice top NCSU aerospace engineering seniors, who also are AIAA members, earn their graduate degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in aerospace engineering at NCSU.
Both the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NCSU and AIAA were important organizations to him, noted his son, Basil Hassan, incoming AIAA president-elect. “This graduate award assures his legacy continues into the future with both organizations,” he said.
Typically, there will be one $5,000 award per year. But this year former students, friends and colleagues raised additional funds in memory of Dr. Hassan so two awards could be presented, each for $5,000. Jonathan T. McCready and Joshua Glazer are the inaugural recipients of the award. More information about AIAA scholarships and graduate awards can be found here. NCSU selects the scholarship recipient.
“Having NCSU’s best aerospace undergraduates remain for graduate work was always important to him; it ensures the aerospace program he helped to start remains top notch in the country,” Basil Hassan said. “He was also deeply involved in AIAA, having been a member since the 1950s. He felt that being active in a professional society was important to one’s career and this award will also encourage the students to be active in AIAA after they graduate.”
Dr. Hassan’s AIAA activities include winning the Thermophysics Award in 1999 for contributions to improving physical models in direct simulation Monte Carlo methods and hybrid Monte Carlo/Navier-Stokes solvers and for the development of a transition/turbulence model for the prediction of onset and extent of transition on flight vehicles.
He also won the AIAA Sustained Service Award in 2007 in “recognition of over five decades of outstanding and sustained service to AIAA's technical, publications, education, and section activities.”
Dr. Hassan’s educational influence extended to his son. Basil Hassan, senior manager at Sandia National Laboratories, earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering from NCSU.
“My dad used to take me to NCSU AIAA student section meetings when I was a kid,” he said. “I also got to attend the 75th anniversary of the Wright Brothers Flight at Kitty Hawk. I was instantly interested in airplanes, and spaceflight so I was hooked. The rest is history.”
About the AIAA Foundation
The AIAA Foundation seeks to “make it exciting, make it empowering, and make it fun.” That simple, compelling philosophy drives the Foundation’s commitment to math, science, and technology education. The AIAA Foundation offers a wealth of resources to support educators from K–12 through university: scholarships, classroom grants, design competitions, and student conferences, improving scientific literacy and advancing the arts and sciences of aerospace. For more information on the AIAA Foundation and its programs for students, teachers, and professionals, please visit www.aiaafoundation.org.
About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 88 countries, and 95 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, www.aiaa.org, or follow us on Twitter @AIAA.
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