AIAA Announces 2024 Undergraduate Scholarship and Graduate Award Winners Written 5 September 2024

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 5, 2024 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation has announced the 26 winners of its 2024 undergraduate scholarships and graduate awards. Through its Foundation and supported by nearly 30,000 members, AIAA annually presents over $100,000 in academic scholarships and STEM educational grants to support the next generation of aerospace professionals.

“Congratulations to these exemplary students on earning scholarships and awards to further their education. Preparing the next generation of aerospace innovators is part of our commitment to the aerospace community,” said Laura McGill, chair, AIAA Foundation. “The students recognized here will be our community’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 2025 scholarships and graduate awards are being accepted from 1 October 2024 to 31 January 2025. Please visit the AIAA Foundation’s Undergraduate Scholarships and Graduate Awards website for more information.

The 2024 undergraduate scholarship winners are:

  • The $10,000 AIAA Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson Scholarship is a needs-based scholarship presented to one high school graduate and one university-enrolled female student each year. The AIAA Foundation, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, is pleased to present the AIAA Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson Scholarship to two students this year:
    • Leslie Nava, accepted to the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta)
    • Faith Colon, currently enrolled at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles)
  • The $10,000 Daedalus 88 Scholarship, endowed by former AIAA President John Langford, founder and chairman of Electra.aero, was presented to Alfonso Lagares de Toledo, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta).
  • 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 Daniel Grammer, University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Md.).
  • 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, president of advanced systems for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, and his wife Vicki, was presented to Timothy Shoup, Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, Okla.).
  • 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 Jaxon Strank, Florida Institute of Technology (Melbourne, Fla.).
  • 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 Jessica Tomshack, Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colo.).

Additional AIAA Foundation scholarships were presented by AIAA technical committees (TC) to students performing research in the TC discipline:

  • The Space Transportation TC presented a $1,500 scholarship to Benjamin Stroup, Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas).

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

  • The Dr. James Rankin Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Jeremy Kuznetsov, University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Md.)
  • The Dr. Amy R. Pritchett Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Julianna Schneider, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.)
  • The Ellis F. Hitt Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Danie Ashley Ayimbombi, University of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky.)
  • The Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Mouhamadou Diop, Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, Ga.).
  • The Denise Ponchak Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Paul Odewale, Federal University of Technology, Akure (Akure, Ondo, Nigeria).

The AIAA Rocky Mountain Section, comprising AIAA members located in Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana, presented a $750 scholarship to Elizabeth Petersen, Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colo.). The scholarship is presented to a student studying at a school that sits within the section’s geographical boundaries.

The 2024 graduate award winners are:

  • Renee Spear, University of Colorado Boulder (Boulder, Colo.), 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.
  • Brian Shi and Jeffrey Whitenack, 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 $7,000 awards presented each year.
  • Lauren Paulson, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta), 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.

Each academic year the AIAA Foundation presents 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:

  • Aashutosh Mishra, Auburn University (Auburn, Ala.)
  • Shilpa Sajeev, Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas)

Five AIAA TCs and one professional group also presented graduate awards:

  • Ramchander Bhaskara, Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas), received the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) TC’s $3,500 Guidance, Navigation and Control Graduate Award.
  • Loren Newton, Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.), received the Modeling and Simulation TC’s $3,500 Luis de Florez Graduate Award.
  • Garrett Cobb, University of Alabama in Huntsville (Huntsville, Ala.), received the Liquid Propulsion TC’s $2,500 Liquid Propulsion Graduate Award.
  • Taaresh Sanjeev Taneja, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (Minneapolis, Minn.), received the Propellants and Combustion TC’s $1,250 Martin Summerfield Propellants and Combustion Graduate Award.
  • Troy Krizak, The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), received the Propulsion and Energy Group’s $1,000 Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award.
  • Suzanne Swaine, Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.), received the General Aviation TC’s $1,000 William T. Piper, Sr., General Aviation Systems 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 X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.