AIAA Announces 2025 Undergraduate Scholarship and Graduate Award Winners Written 14 October 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 14, 2025 – Reston, Va. – AIAA has announced the winners of its 2025 undergraduate scholarships and graduate awards. Through the AIAA Foundation and supported by its nearly 30,000 members, AIAA annually presents over $235,000 in academic scholarships and STEM educational grants to support the next generation of aerospace professionals.

“Congratulations to these remarkable students on earning scholarships and awards to further their education. We are proud to call them AIAA student members,” said Laura McGill, chair, AIAA Foundation. “Preparing the next generation of innovators is part of AIAA’s commitment to the aerospace community. We look forward to seeing how these students make the next breakthroughs to shape the future of aerospace.”

Applications for the 2026 scholarships and graduate awards are being accepted from 15 October 2025 to 31 January 2026. Visit the AIAA Foundation’s Undergraduate Scholarships and Graduate Awards website for more information.

The 2025 undergraduate scholarship winners are:

• 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 Paige Rust, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
• The $10,000 Daedalus 88 Scholarship, endowed by former AIAA President John Langford, founder and chairman of Electra.aero, was presented to Abigail Frank, Purdue University.
• The $10,000 Mary W. Jackson Scholarship, honoring the late NASA mathematician and aerospace engineer, Mary W. Jackson, was presented to Joshua Kassel, University of Colorado Boulder.
• 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 Ishaan Kalanadha Bhatta, Purdue University.

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 Avah Cherry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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

• The Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Geenadie Rathnayake, University of Washington.
• The Ellis F. Hitt Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Karsten Caillet, Georgia Institute of Technology.
• The Dr. Amy R. Pritchett Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Karson Schaefers, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
• The Dr. James Rankin Digital Avionics Scholarship was presented to Julianna Schneider, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The AIAA Rocky Mountain Section, comprising AIAA members located in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut presented a $500 scholarship to Titus Smith, Colorado School of Mines. The scholarship is presented to a student studying at a school that sits within the section’s geographical boundaries.

The 2025 graduate award winners are:

• Patrick Bailey, University of South Carolina, received the Neil Armstrong Graduate Award. This $10,000 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.
• Veera Venkata Ram Murali Krishna Rao Muvva, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, received the Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award. This $10,000 award is given to a full-time graduate student in memory of the Wright brothers’ contributions to the evolution of flight.
• Stephen West and Andrew Strawn, 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 $8,000 awards are presented each year.
• Marwa Yacouti, University of Colorado Boulder, received the $1,250 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.

Five AIAA TCs also presented graduate awards:

• Akshaj “Akku” Kumar, Texas A&M University, received the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) TC’s $3,500 Guidance, Navigation and Control Graduate Award.
• Cole Nielsen, Purdue University, received the Liquid Propulsion TC’s $2,500 Liquid Propulsion Graduate Award.
• Ari Jain, Georgia Institute of Technology, received the Propellants and Combustion TC’s $1,500 Martin Summerfield Propellants and Combustion Graduate Award.
• Kaurab Gautam, University of Cincinnati, received the Propulsion and Energy Group’s $1,000 Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award.
• Aayush Bhattarai, Auburn University, received the General Aviation TC’s $1,000 William T. Piper, Sr., General Aviation Systems Graduate Award.

Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

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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, and follow AIAA on LinkedIn, Instagram, X/Twitter, and Facebook.