AIAA Announces 2023 Undergraduate Scholarship and Graduate Award Winners Written 5 September 2023

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 5, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation has announced the 24 winners of its 2023 undergraduate scholarships and graduate awards. Through its Foundation and supported by nearly 30,000 members, AIAA annually awards over $100,000 in academic scholarships and STEM educational grants to support the next generation of aerospace professionals.

“Congratulations to these exemplary students on receiving scholarships and awards to further their education. Preparing the next generation of aerospace innovators is part of our commitment to the aerospace community,” said Basil Hassan, chair, AIAA Foundation. “The students recognized here are some of our industry’s next leaders and problem-solvers. We are proud to call them AIAA student members and we look forward to seeing how they shape the future of aerospace.”

Applications for the 2024 scholarships and graduate awards are being accepted from 1 October to 31 January. Please visit the AIAA Foundation’s Scholarship and Graduate Awards website for more information.

The 2023 undergraduate scholarship winners are:

  • The AIAA Foundation, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, is pleased to present the AIAA Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson Scholarship to two students. The $10,000 AIAA Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson Scholarship is a needs-based scholarship presented to one female high school graduate and one university-enrolled female student each year.

    • Anna Maria Zueva, accepted to Columbia University (New York, NY)
    • Priya Abiram, currently enrolled at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
  • Two $10,000 Daedalus 88 Scholarships, endowed by former AIAA President John Langford, founder and CEO Emeritus of Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing Company, and founder and CEO of Electra.aero, were presented this year.

    • Lucas Pabarcius, California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California)
    • Jammal Yarbrough, College of the Canyons (Santa Clarita, California).
  • The $10,000 David and Catherine Thompson Space Technology Scholarship, named for and endowed by former AIAA President David Thompson, retired chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Orbital ATK, Dulles, Virginia, and his wife Catherine, was presented to Noah McAllister, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey).

  • The $5,000 Vicki and George Muellner Scholarship for Aerospace Engineering, named for and endowed by the late Lt. Gen. George Muellner, U.S. Air Force, former AIAA president and president of advanced systems for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, and his wife Vicki, was presented to Nikolai Baranov, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana).

  • The $5,000 Wernher von Braun Scholarship, named in honor of the German rocketeer and founder of the U.S. space program, was presented to Ashish Cavale, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia).

  • The $1,250 Leatrice Gregory Pendray Scholarship, named in honor of Mrs. Leatrice Pendray, an accomplished rocketry researcher and co-founder of the American Interplanetary Society in 1930, was presented to Shruti Jadhav, University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina).

Three AIAA Foundation scholarships were presented by AIAA technical committees (TC) to students performing research in the TC’s area:

  • The Space Transportation TC presented a $1,500 scholarship to Nelson Pixley, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Blacksburg, Virginia).

The Digital Avionics TC presented five scholarships of $3,000 each:

  • The Dr. James Rankin Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Quintan Ajluni, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana).

  • The Dr. Amy R. Pritchett Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Vikas Patel, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Daytona Beach (Daytona Beach, Florida).

  • The Ellis F. Hitt Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Ethan Traub, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia).

  • The Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Hampton Wohlford, Virginia Military Institute (Lexington, Virginia).

  • The Denise Ponchak Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Sashwat Suman, Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)

The 2023 graduate award winners are:

  • Michaela Hemming, University of Alabama in Huntsville (Huntsville, Alabama), received the Neil Armstrong Graduate Award. This $5,000 award honors the character and achievements of the late astronaut, military pilot, and educator, Neil A. Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon.

  • Rutledge Fogel and Shaan Stephen, both from North Carolina State University (NCSU), are the recipients of the Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Graduate Award in Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Hassan established the award shortly before his death in January 2019 to entice top NCSU aerospace engineering seniors, who also are AIAA members, to earn their graduate degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in aerospace engineering at NCSU. Two $5,000 awards are presented each year.

  • Catherine Nachtigal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts), received the John Leland Atwood Graduate Award. Established in 1999, the $1,250 award, sponsored by endowments from Rockwell and what is now The Boeing Company and named in memory of John Leland “Lee” Atwood, former chief executive officer of Rockwell, North America, recognizes a student actively engaged in research in the areas covered by the technical committees of AIAA.

  • Sandro Salguiero, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and Lynn Pickering, University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio), each received the Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award. These $5,000 awards, given in memory of the Wright brothers’ contributions to the evolution of flight, recognize two full-time graduate students.

Three AIAA TCs also presented graduate awards:

  • Animesh Shastry, University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Maryland), received the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) TC’s $3,500 Guidance, Navigation and Control Graduate Award.

  • Sybren Bootsma, TU Delft (Delft, Netherlands), received the Modeling and Simulation TC’s $3,500 Luis de Florez Graduate Award.

  • Daniel Gochenaur, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts), received the Air Breathing Propulsion TC’s $1,000 Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award.

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

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, LinkedIn, and Instagram.