AIAA Announces 2022-2023 Section Award Winners Written 23 August 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 23, 2023 Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has announced its 2022–2023 section award winners. The section awards honor particularly notable achievements made by members of AIAA’s 57 sections around the world in a range of activities that help fulfill the Institute’s mission. Section awards are given annually in eight categories based on the size of each section’s membership. Each winning section receives a certificate and a cash award. The award period is 1 June 2022–31 May 2023.

“Across AIAA, local sections are where the action begins. We believe that vital, active sections are essential to the Institute’s success. Congratulations to these sections for their noteworthy achievements!” said AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher.

The Outstanding Section Award is presented to sections based upon their overall activities and contributions through the year. The winners are:

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• First Place: Central Coast of California
• Second Place: Adelaide
• Third Place: Delaware
• Honorable Mention: Melbourne

SMALL

• First Place: Northwest Florida
• Second Place: Wichita
• Third Place: Palm Beach

MEDIUM

• First Place: Tucson
• Second Place: Greater Philadelphia
• Third Place: Illinois

LARGE

• First Place: Northern Ohio
• Second Place: Cape Canaveral
• Third Place: North Texas

VERY LARGE

• First Place: Los Angeles-Las Vegas
• Second Place: Hampton Roads
• Third Place: Rocky Mountain

The Communications Award is presented to sections that have developed and implemented an outstanding communications outreach program. Winning criteria include level of complexity, timeliness, and variety of methods of communications, as well as frequency, format, and content of the communication outreach. The winners are:

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• First Place (tie): Central Coast of California, Matthew Tanner (U.S. Air Force), communication officer
• First Place (tie): Delaware, Jordon Wozney (Northrop Grumman Corporation), communications officer
• Second Place: Point Lobos, Giovanni Minelli (Naval Postgraduate School), section chair
• Third Place: Melbourne, Frank Papa (Spacelink Consulting), communications officer

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• First Place (tie): Long Island, David Paris, section chair
• First Place (tie): Northwest Florida, Ryan Sherrill (Air Force Research Laboratory), section chair
• Second Place: Utah, Michael Stevens (Northrop Grumman Corporation), section chair

MEDIUM

• First Place: Greater Philadelphia, Jonathan Moore (Lockheed Martin Corporation), communications officer
• Second Place: Illinois, Kenneth Brezinsky (University of Illinois Chicago), secretary; Andrew Touvannas (Woodward Inc), honors and awards officer; Laura Villafañe Roca (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), section chair
• Third Place: Tucson, Huntington Gazecki (Raytheon), communications officer

LARGE

• First Place (tie): Northern Ohio, Edmond Wong (NASA Glenn Research Center), communications officer
• First Place (tie): Atlanta, Neil Sutherland (Delta Air Lines TechOps), section chair
• Second Place: Alburquerque, Elizabeth Kallman (Harvard University), communication officer
• Third Place (tie): Cape Canaveral, Kevin Johnson (Jacobs Technology), section chair
• Third Place (tie): North Texas, James Sergeant (Virgin Galactic), section chair

VERY LARGE

• First Place: Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Kenneth Lui (Ken’s Consulting), section chair
• Second Place: Hampton Roads, Lee Mears (NASA Langley Research Center), Newsletter Editor Officer
• Third Place: Greater Huntsville, Tracie Prater (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center), section chair

The Membership Award is presented to sections that have supported their membership by planning and implementing effective recruitment and retention campaigns. The winners are:

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• First Place: Delaware, Zachary Gent (Northrop Grumman Corporation), membership officer
• Second Place: Adelaide, Patrick Neumann (Neumann Space), section chair
• Third Place: Central Coast of California, Michelle Itzel-Montoya (U.S. Space Force), section chair

SMALL

• First Place: Wichita, Mary Drouin (Spirit Aerosystems), membership officer
• Second Place: Northwest Florida, Ryan Sherrill (AFRL), section chair
• Third Place: Utah, Michael Stevens (Northrop Grumman), section chair

MEDIUM

• First Place: Illinois, Andrew Touvannas (Woodward Inc), honors and awards officer
• Second Place: Greater Philadelphia, Christina Layton (College of New Jersey), membership officer
• Third Place: Tucson, Andrew Alexander (Raytheon), membership officer

LARGE

• First Place: Northern Ohio, Jonah Sachs-Wetstone (NASA Glenn Research Center), membership officer
• Second Place: Orange County, Bob Welge (Robert’s Engineering Development), membership officer
• Third Place (tie): Atlanta, Aaron Harcrow (No Box Innovations), membership officer
• Third Place (tie): St. Louis, Alexander Friedman (The Boeing Company), membership officer; Mark Kammeyer (The Boeing Company), university education officer

VERY LARGE

• First Place: Hampton Roads, Richard Winski and Julia Cline (NASA Langley Research Center), membership officers
• Second Place: Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Sherry Stukes (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), membership officer
• Third Place: New England, Hiro Endo (Test Devices — Schenck USA Corporation), section chair

The Public Policy Award is presented for stimulating public awareness of the needs of aerospace research and development, particularly on the part of government representatives, and for educating section members about the value of public policy activities. The winners are:

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• First Place: Delaware, Di Ena Davis, public policy officer
• Second Place (tie): Adelaide, Patrick Neumann (Neumann Space), section chair
• Second Place (tie): Central Coast of California, Michelle Itzel-Montoya (U.S. Space Force), section chair
• Third Place: Melbourne, Kaja Antlej (Deakin University), section chair

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• First Place (tie): Northwest Florida, Michael Kelton (U.S. Air Force), public policy officer
• First Place (tie): Palm Beach, Kevin Simmons (BLUECUBE Aerospace), public policy officer

MEDIUM

• First Place: Greater Philadelphia, Joi Spraggins (Legacy Bridges STEM Academy); public policy officer
• Second Place: Illinois, Mordechai Levin (Masterflight Inc), public policy officer
• Third Place: Tucson, Robert Tagtmeyer (Raytheon), public policy officer

LARGE

• First Place: Northern Ohio, Michael Heil (ML Heil Consulting LLC), public policy officer
• Second Place: Cape Canaveral, Linda Andruski (The Aerospace Company), public policy officer
• Third Place: Albuquerque, Mark Fraser (U.S. Air Force), public policy officer

VERY LARGE

• First Place (tie): Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Kenneth Lui (Ken’s Consulting), section chair; Roz Lowe (Delta Hi-Tech), public policy officer
• First Place (tie): Rocky Mountain, Lisa Luedtke (Lockheed Martin Corporation), public policy officer
• Second Place: Hampton Roads, Steven Dunn (Jacobs Technology), public policy officer
• Third Place: Houston, Wayne Rast (CCP SW Safety), public policy officer

The STEM K–12 Award is presented to sections that have developed and implemented an outstanding STEM K–12 outreach program that provides quality education resources for K–12 teachers in the STEM subject areas. The winners are:

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• First Place: Central Coast of California, Thomas Stevens (Space Launch Delta 30), STEM K-12 officer
• Second Place (tie): Delaware, Daniel Nice (Northrop Grumman Corporation), section chair
• Second Place (tie): Point Lobos, Giovanni Minelli (Navel Postgraduate School), section chair
• Third Place: Adelaide, Patrick Neumann (Neumann Space), section chair

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• First Place: Palm Beach, Shawna Christenson (Aerospace and Innovation Academy), STEM K-12 officer; and Kevin Simmons (BLUECUBE Aerospace), public policy officer
• Second Place: Northwest Florida, Judith Sherrill (AFRL), STEM K-12 officer
• Third Place: Northern New Jersey, Raymond Trohanowsky (Army Futures Command), section chair

MEDIUM

• First Place: Tucson, Michelle Rouch (Artwork by Rouch), STEM K-12 officer
• Second Place: Phoenix, Paul Kaup (STEM+C Inc), STEM K-12 officer
• Third Place: Greater Philadelphia, Christopher Reynolds (Lockheed Martin Corporation), STEM K-12 officer

LARGE

• First Place (tie): Cape Canaveral, Melissa Sleeper, STEM K-12 officer
• First Place (tie): St. Louis, Jackie Blumer (Greenville Jr. High School), STEM K-12 officer
• Second Place: Orange County, Binay Pandey (International Vitamin Corporation), STEM K-12 officer
• Third Place: Northern Ohio, Jonathan Kratz (NASA Glenn Research Center), STEM K-12 officer

VERY LARGE

• First Place: Hampton Roads, Amanda Chou and Karen Berger (NASA Langley Research Center), STEM K-12 officers
• Second Place (tie): Greater Huntsville, Robin Osborne (ERC), STEM K-12 officer
• Second Place (tie): National Capital, Susan Bardenhagen, STEM K-12 officer
• Third Place: Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Arpie Ovsepyan (Herbert Hoover High School), STEM K-12 officer

The Section-Student Branch Partnership Award recognizes the most effective and innovative collaboration between the professional section members and student branch members.

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• First Place: Central Pennsylvania, Puneet Singla (Pennsylvania State University), section chair
•  Second Place: Adelaide, Harry Rowton (University of Adelaide), student branch liaison
• Third Place: Central Coast of California, Eva McLaughlin, education officer

SMALL

• First Place: Wichita, Linda Kliment (Wichita State University), education officer
• Second Place: Twin Cities, Kristen Gerzina (Northrop Grumman Corporation), section chair
• Third Place: Sydney, Tjasa Boh Whiteman (University of New South Wales), section chair; Ramzel Liwanag (University of New South Wales), vice chair

MEDIUM

• First Place: Illinois, Laura Villafañe Roca (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign), section chair
• Second Place: Tucson, Peter Olejnik, young professional officer
• Third Place: Greater Philadelphia, Jonathan Moore (Lockheed Martin Corporation), section chair

LARGE

• First Place: North Texas, James Sergeant (Virgin Galactic), section chair
• Second Place: St. Louis, Alexander Friedman (The Boeing Company), membership officer; Mark Kammeyer (The Boeing Company), university education officer
• Third Place (tie): Cape Canaveral, J. Keith Sowell (Star Voyager), education officer
• Third Place (tie): Central Florida, Walter Hammond (Walter Sierra LLC), section chair
• Third Place (tie): Orange County, Dino Roman (Boeing Commercial Airplanes), section chair

VERY LARGE

• First Place: New England, Thomas “Phoenix” Robbins, outreach officer; Charles Wilson, advisor
• Second Place: Rocky Mountain, Cordero Orona (Lockheed Martin Space Systems), outreach officer
• Third Place (tie): Hampton Roads, Soumyo Dutta (NASA Langley Research Center), section chair
• Third Place (tie): Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Luis Cuevas (Lockheed Martin Corporation), young professional chair
• Third Place (tie): National Capital, David Brandt (Lockheed Martin Corporation), section chair

The Young Professional Activity Award is presented for excellence in planning and executing events that encourage the participation of the Institute’s young professional members, and provide opportunities for leadership at the section, regional, or national level. The winners are:

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• First Place: Delaware, Taylor Coleman, young professional officer
• Second Place: Adelaide, Daniel Kilonzo (University of Adelaide), young professional officer
• Third Place: Melbourne, Kaja Antlej (Deakin University), section chair

SMALL

• First Place: Northwest Florida, Prashant Ganesh (University of Florida), young professional officer
• Second Place: Utah, Michael Stevens (Northrop Grumman Corporation), section chair
• Third Place: Twin Cities, Kristen Gerzina (Northrop Grumman Corporation), section chair

MEDIUM

• First Place: Antelope Valley, Joseph Piotrowski (NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center), young professional officer
• Second Place: Indiana, Robert Kapaku (Rolls-Royce), young professional officer
• Third Place (tie): Greater Philadelphia, Jonathan Moore (Lockheed Martin Corporation), section  chair
• Third Place (tie): Illinois, Savas Mavridis (Northrop Grumman Mission Systems), vice chair
• Third Place (tie): Tucson, Peter Olejnik, young professional officer

LARGE

• First Place (tie): Cape Canaveral, Kineo Wallace (Vaya Space), young professional officer
• First Place (tie): Northern Ohio, Halle Buescher (NASA Glenn Research Center), young professional officer
• Second Place: North Texas, James Sergeant (Virgin Galactic), section chair

VERY LARGE

• First Place: Hampton Roads, Kyle Thompson (NASA Langley Research Center), young professional officer
• Second Place: Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Courtney Best (The Boeing Company), young professional officer
• Third Place (tie): Greater Huntsville, Christopher Kitson (nou Systems), young professional officer
• Third Place (tie): New England, Shreyas Hegde (Pratt & Whitney), section chair

The Outstanding Activity Award allows the Institute to acknowledge sections that held an outstanding activity deserving of additional recognition. The winners are:

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• Melbourne, International Moon Day 2022 event—"The (Re)birth of Australia in Space: Towards Sustainable Lunar Exploration.” As Australia looks to go to the moon for the first time, no earlier than 2026 through the development of a Foundation Services Rover, AIAA Adelaide Section and the Moon Village Association partnered on an event to celebrate the UN’s International Moon Day 2022. The (Re)birth of Australia in Space brought together highly recognized Australian and U.S. speakers in the areas of space archaeology, space history, space law and heritage, space industry and space studies who discussed the past, present, and future of Australian involvement in sustainable lunar exploration. The event was well received, including discussion with the panelists at the end of the session. At the event, AIAA announced the intention to establish the AIAA Melbourne Section.

SMALL:

• Long Island, “Landing on the Moon” at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. AIAA partnered with IISE, ASME, ISA, IEEE (AESS) for this hybrid event with presenter John Connolly, a member of NASA’s Artemis team and Human Landing System Program. Connolly drew upon his 36 years of NASA expertise, including lunar lander design, lunar surface systems, and human Mars mission planning experience, to describe the Grumman-built lunar module (LM) and the differences between that original lunar lander and the SpaceX lander that will carry astronauts to the moon within the next three years and then take humans to Mars and beyond. He also made a point of explaining that the mission fundamentals have not changed over the last 50 years.

• Honorable Mention, Wichita, “To the Moon and To the Planets Beyond: What is the Future of the Artemis HLS.” This joint event between the AIAA Wichita Section, and the Kansas University, University of Missouri Kansas City, and Wichita State University student branches was planned to engage all of the student branches in the section to build bridges and encourage collaboration. The featured speaker, Alicia Dwyer Cianciolo, Senior Technical Lead for Advanced Entry, Descent and Landing Vehicle Technology Development at NASA Langley Research Center, provided a fascinating talk focusing primarily on the various challenges facing the Artemis III Human Landing System mission. She also covered her experience with Mars exploration over the past 20 years, including her work on the Odyssey and Reconnaissance Orbiter aerobraking operations and as a member of the Entry, Descent and Landing Team that successfully landed the Curiosity Rover in 2012 and the InSight lander in 2018. In-person attendance was encouraged to promote networking and collaboration between the student branches and professional members, but there was a hybrid component to enable a much wider reach. The event was received very enthusiastically by all participants and will serve as a model for future events.

MEDIUM:

• Antelope Valley, First Flights in the Antelope Valley. This large dinner event at the Hellenic Center in Lancaster, Calif., was moderated by Colonel Grant Mizell. A First Flight Consideration Panel, including Dan Canin, Bob Hood, and Evan Thomas, discussed first flight experience with the Stratolauncher, B-2, and the upcoming X-59. Doug Shane also presented on “Reflections on First Flight from a Pilot’s Perspective.” The section secured an agreement with SETP/SFTE to agree on even cost/profit, and headed primary planning meetings to organize the dinner, manage event costs, design and purchase awards, promote the event with flyers and programs, and prepare an onsite report.

• Honorable Mention, Phoenix, “Taking Flight.” This event was organized as a hands-on learning, immersive experience in aviation, aeronautics, aerospace, robotics, UAV/UAS, and many more STEM-related areas of interest. The event helped demonstrate the STEM applicability of hobbies including: students had the opportunity to “Buddy Box” with an instructor and fly a trainer RC airplane, a multi-rotor vehicle, or an RC car or truck. Students also had the opportunity to build small model rockets with the help of model rocketry volunteers. There were opportunities for students to learn about the many different STEM enrichment programs from all over the valley. In addition, schools from around the state were invited to showcase their engineering, aviation, aerospace, and robotics programs, and professionals spoke with students about career choices in the applicable fields.

LARGE (tie):

• Cape Canaveral-Palm Beach, Small Satellite Education Conference. The 2022 Small Satellite Education Conference was an inaugural activity created by two AIAA members: one from Palm Beach and the other from Cape Canaveral. The Center for Space Education was the venue perfect for the conference, where they focused on presenting various technical topics around small satellites to students, educators, professors, and industry veterans. The goal was to foster both the idea that anyone, professional, collegiate, or even middle school level, could develop a small satellite program and win an opportunity to have their project sent into space. Attendees also had the opportunity to visit various vendor booths to learn about more technologies, learn about local college programs, and see what several middle schools had accomplished over the past year. Additionally, students from middle school to early professional, and several veterans (industry and academia), gave presentations. They offered several scholarships and various awards for different design and art competitions.

LARGE (tie):

• Niagara Frontier, X-1 75th Anniversary Commemoration. This event commemorated the 75th anniversary, to the day, of the Bell X-1 breaking the sound barrier on 14 October 1947. The very first X-plane, then known as the XS-1 for eXperimental Supersonic, was designed and built at the Bell Aerospace plant in Niagara Falls. The keynote speaker, Richard Hallion, past Chief Historian of the U.S. Air Force and author of numerous books and articles on the X-1 and supersonic flight, spoke on “Buffalo, Bell, and the XS-1: A 75th Anniversary Perspective.” Hallion was introduced by Bill Barry, past NASA Chief Historian, who discussed the roots of Hallion’s X-1 research in the NASA History Office. The hybrid event consisted of dinner for 110 individuals at the Calspan hangar, including a large group from the AIAA student branch at the State University of New York-Buffalo, and 38 attendees via Zoom. The event also included a walking tour of the original X-1 loading pit next to Bell plant where the aircraft was built. Paul Schifferle, Calspan VP for Flight Research, gave a tour of the Calspan experimental variable stability aircraft to the students.

LARGE (tie):

• Northern Ohio, Young Astronauts Day. The 28th Annual Young Astronaut Day (YAD) event was held on 5 November 2022, at Cleveland State University (CSU). After a two-year hiatus, the section’s long-standing STEM outreach event successfully returned with participation from 27 teams comprising over 165 K-12 students and nearly 60 parents and teachers. NASA Senior Research Engineer Diane Linne (recently retired from NASA Glenn Research Center) provided an inspiring keynote address in which she recapped her decorated career and taught some valuable lessons, both academic and non-academic. Linne highlighted her recent work considering the establishment of sustainable human presence on the moon and Mars through the generation and use of resources from indigenous materials, which includes building the infrastructure to refine and distribute fuel locally. Linne punctuated her talk by providing opportunities for the students to engage and participate in numerous demonstrations.

VERY LARGE (tie):

• Los Angeles-Las Vegas, “DC-X/XA—The Genesis of Fully Reusable Access to Space.” The amazing vertical launching and landing capabilities of the SpaceX and Blue Origin rockets are very exciting. NASA's DC-X/XA was 20+ years ahead of SpaceX or Blue Origin, but the facts and histories of the NASA DC-X/XA rockets are rarely mentioned. This event was an opportunity for attendees to experience the thrills and be inspired by the leaders of this groundbreaking and historic project! Event speakers included Dan Dumbacher (AIAA), Jess Sponable (New Frontier Aerospace (NFA), Inc.), Joaquin H. Castro (Aerojet Rocketdyne), James R. French (JRF Aerospace Consulting LLC), and Jeff Laube (The Aerospace Corporation). Members from the NASA DC-X/XA team participated, spoke, and volunteered to help. It was truly beneficial and inspiring. In addition to the 101 attendees at the 12 December 2022 event, there also have been 1,155 views on the video posted online.

VERY LARGE (tie):

• Rocky Mountain, NSBE-AIAA Space Operations Forum 2023. AIAA Rocky Mountain Section (RMS) and Dexter Johnson of NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) from Glenn Research Center collaborated on a new networking event to help increase diversity and inclusion (D&I) within the Colorado aerospace community. The 1st Annual Space Operations Forum (SOF-2023), held 16–17 February at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), was a unique and successful opportunity for AIAA RMS to work directly on a D&I event with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Space City Professionals (SCP) chapter in Houston, Texas. NASA officials gave presentations discussing how to transition from the International Space Station (ISS) to commercial low Earth orbit destinations as the ISS will be decommissioned in 2030. The forum was designed as a networking, working group event to produce a set of ideas from underrepresented professionals and students. Five working groups, including one with our virtual participants, were asked two primary questions by NASA. The solutions formulated by the working groups were presented at the end of the forum to NASA Johnson Space Center representatives. Additionally, Ball Aerospace hosted a facility tour for the group in Boulder, Colorado.

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.