AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala to Confer Top Honors Written 23 March 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Event Honors Aerospace’s Best and Brightest

March 23, 2021 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has announced the 2021 recipients of its most prestigious awards. Presentation of these premier awards will take place on Thursday, 12 August 2021, at the AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala. This will be a virtual event.

The AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala is an annual event recognizing the most influential and inspiring individuals in aerospace, whose outstanding contributions merit the highest accolades.

“Congratulations to our premier award winners,” said AIAA President Basil Hassan. “We are inspired by their hard work, skill, and achievements, and we thank them for their dedication to the aerospace industry. AIAA is committed to ensuring that aerospace professionals are recognized and celebrated for their achievements, innovations, and discoveries that make the world safer, more connected, more accessible, and more prosperous. I’m excited to recognize these trailblazers at the virtual AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala in August!”

The winners are:

AIAA Goddard Astronautics Award – Gen. Ellen M. Pawlikowski, U.S. Air Force (retired)

AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award – Michimasa Fujino, Honda Aircraft Company

AIAA Distinguished Service Award – Merri J. Sanchez, The Aerospace Corporation

AIAA International Cooperation Award –

• Michael Watkins, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Michael A. Gross, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Frank Flechtner, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
• Albert Zaglauer, Airbus Defence and Space

AIAA Public Service Award – Marcia S. Smith, SpacePolicyOnline.com

AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award – Benjamin Jorns, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

AIAA Engineer of the Year – Humberto Silva III, Sandia National Laboratories

AIAA Educator Achievement Award –

• Suzanne Banas, South Miami Middle Community School Miami, Florida
• Leesa Hubbard, W.A. Wright Elementary, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee
• Mark Westlake, Saint Thomas Academy, Mendota Heights, Minnesota

Award Citations

AIAA Goddard Astronautics Award
The highest honor AIAA bestows for notable achievement in the field of astronautics. It was endowed by Mrs. Goddard in the 1940s as the ARS Goddard Memorial Award to commemorate her husband, Robert H. Goddard—rocket visionary, pioneer, bold experimentalist, and superb engineer whose early liquid rocket engine launches set the stage for the development of astronautics.
Gen. Ellen M. Pawlikowski, U.S. Air Force (retired), honored “For outstanding and notable contributions to the U.S. Air Force, the field of astronautics, and the aerospace and defense community.”

AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award
The highest honor AIAA bestows for notable achievement in the field of aeronautics. The award is named after Dr. Sylvanus A. Reed, the aeronautical engineer, designer, and founding member of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences in 1932. Reed was the first to develop a propeller system composed of metal rather than wood. His aluminum alloy propeller gave Jimmy Doolittle's plane the speed it needed to win the 1925 Schneider Cup race and brought the inventor much credit and many rewards.
Michimasa Fujino, Honda Aircraft Company, honored “For the invention of advanced aerodynamic and structural technologies implemented on Honda's first aircraft, the HondaJet, creating new value in business aviation.”

AIAA Distinguished Service Award
AIAA recognizes an individual member who has provided distinguished service to the Institute over a period of years.
Merri J. Sanchez, The Aerospace Corporation, honored “For over three decades of leadership and distinguished service to AIAA that contributed significantly to the success of the Institute.”

AIAA International Cooperation Award
The award recognizes individual/s who have made significant contributions to the initiation, organization, implementation, and/or management of activities with significant U.S. involvement and that includes extensive international cooperative activities in space, aeronautics, or both.
Michael Watkins, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Michael A. Gross, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Frank Flechtner, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences; Albert Zaglauer, Airbus Defence and Space, honored “For outstanding leadership of the international consortium in the planning and implementation of the successful Earth gravity missions GRACE and GRACE-FO.”

AIAA Public Service Award
The highest recognition AIAA bestows on a person outside the aerospace community who has shown consistent and visible support for national aviation and space goals.
Marcia S. Smith, SpacePolicyOnline.com, honored “For a lifetime and ongoing public support of aerospace, providing cogent analyses of critical, high visibility issues to Congress, the government, and the general public.”

AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award
The award is presented for a notable contribution made by a young person, age 35 or under, to the advancement of aeronautics or astronautics. This award honors Lawrence B. Sperry, pioneer aviator and inventor, who died in 1923 in a forced landing while attempting a flight across the English Channel.
Benjamin Jorns, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, honored “In recognition of his seminal experimental and theoretical work on wave-driven effects in Hall thrusters and his contributions to the development of advanced thruster technologies.”

AIAA Engineer of the Year
This award is presented to a member of the Institute who has made a recent individual, technical contribution in the application of scientific and mathematical principles leading to a significant technical accomplishment.
Humberto Silva III, Sandia National Laboratories, recognized “For pioneering the modernization of re-entry vehicle probability loss of assured safety assessments including conduction, convection, chemical kinetics, radiation and associated thermophysical material uncertainty.”

AIAA Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, RebeccaG@AIAA.org, 804-397-5270.

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 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.