Undergraduate Scholarships & Graduate Awards

Home/ Get Involved/ University Students

In This Section

To help support our future aerospace professionals, the AIAA Foundation provides scholarships and graduate awards annually to undergraduate and graduate students in science or engineering programs.

In the past 20 years, the AIAA Foundation has provided over 1,300 scholarships and graduate awards to students at more than 150 colleges and universities worldwide.

The AIAA Foundation Undergraduate Scholarships Program offers scholarships to college sophomores, juniors, and seniors each year.

Through its annual Graduate Awards Program, the AIAA Foundation presents awards to graduate students doing excellent research in the air and space sciences.

Undergraduate Scholarship and Graduate Award applications must be submitted online. Applicants must be AIAA Student Members. To become a Student Member, click here.

Applicants may apply for up to two (2) scholarships or graduate awards. On the application form, you will indicate your primary award preference, along with a secondary award preference for which you would like to be considered. Please note that applicants with no demonstrated academic interest in the subject area of the award will not be considered, so please carefully select the awards that most closely correspond to your area of academic interest.


Eligibility Requirements  Application Requirements  Restrictions  FAQs 


Undergraduate Scholarships

Scholarship Name & Award Amount

  • Daedalus 88 Scholarship: $10,000*
    *Note: Applicants should call out their entrepreneurial spirit by describing their leadership of a student-initiated, hands-on multidisciplinary aerospace engineering project.  Applicants must be willing to make a presentation, at a site that is mutually agreeable, on the student-led project in which they participated.
  • David and Catherine Thompson Space Technology Scholarship: $10,000
  • Mary W. Jackson Scholarship: $10,000
  • Steve L. Karman Jr. Aerospace Engineering Scholarship: $10,000
  • Vicki and George Muellner Scholarship for Aerospace Engineering: $5,000
  • Space Transportation Scholarship: $1,500
  • Rocky Mountain Section Scholarship: $500
    *Note: This scholarship is only available to students studying at accredited institutions located within the geographic boundaries of the AIAA Rocky Mountain Professional Section.
Digital Avionics Scholarships
  • Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship: $3,000
  • Denise Ponchak Digital Avionics Scholarship: $3,000*
    *This scholarship is only available to non-US Students studying at a non-US University. Students from embargoed countries are ineligible to apply for this scholarship.
  • Dr. Amy R. Pritchett Digital Avionics Scholarship: $3,000
  • Dr. James Rankin Digital Avionics Scholarship: $3,000
  • Ellis F. Hitt Digital Avionics Scholarship: $3,000

Applications accepted from 15 October to 31 January.


Graduate Awards

Aeronautics Astronautics

Scholarship Name & Award Amount
  • Neil Armstrong Graduate Award: $10,000
  • Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award: $10,000
  • Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Graduate Award in Aerospace Engineering (x2): $8,000
  • Liquid Propulsion TC Graduate Award: $2,500
  • Guidance, Navigation and Control Graduate Award: $3,500 (plus $350 stipend to attend the AIAA SciTech Forum)
  • Martin Summerfield Propellants and Combustion Graduate Award: $1,500
  • John Leland Atwood Graduate Award: $1,250
  • Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award: $1,000
  • William T. Piper, Sr. General Aviation Systems Graduate Award: $1,500 ($1,000 award, plus $500 stipend, to attend the AIAA AVIATION Forum)

Applications accepted from 15 October to 31 January.

*Applications for the Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Graduate Award will be processed via the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Aerospace Engineering program graduate school application. Applications for this particular award will NOT be processed via the AIAA online scholarship database. Applicants for the award are limited to NCSU Aerospace Engineering seniors who will pursue a graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering at NCSU. Additionally, applicants must be AIAA student members and US Citizens to be eligible for the award. For more specific information, please contact Dr. Jack Edwards ([email protected]) or Dr. Kara Peters ([email protected]).

Judging:

  • Judging for AIAA Foundation-sponsored awards and scholarships is done by the Scholarship Selection Subcommittee of the Student Activities Committee.
  • Judging for Section or Technical Committee-sponsored awards and scholarships is done by sponsoring Technical Committees or Sections
  • All decisions made by the scholarship selection committees are final.
  • If a selection committee determines there is not a qualified applicant for a particular year, the scholarship will not be awarded.
  • Plagiarism – any essay responses or collateral materials should be the original work of the applicant. Any portion of an application that is found to be plagiarized will disqualify the application from any further review.

Deadline:

  • Online application form opens at 12:00 p.m. ET, 15 October
  • Online applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET, 31 January
  • Letters of recommendation due by 11:59 p.m. ET, 14 February
  • All application materials must be present for an application to be considered complete.