Tag: Recipient

Marilyn J. Smith Awarded 2026 AIAA-NAE Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in Aerospace Engineering

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Rotorcraft – The New Frontier in Extraplanetary Exploration” set for 5 October

July 7, 2026, Reston, Va. — The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) are pleased to announce that Marilyn J. Smith, David S. Lewis Professor of Aerospace Engineering in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Director of the Georgia Tech Army/Navy/NASA Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in Aerospace Engineering.

Smith will present her lecture, “Rotorcraft – The New Frontier in Extraplanetary Exploration,” on Monday, 5 Oct., starting at 1 p.m. ET with the lecture, followed by a reception. This lecture will be held in conjunction with the NAE Annual Meeting at 500 Fifth St. NW, Washington, D.C. Registration for this lecture and reception are free and open to the public.

Rotorcraft are highly versatile flight vehicles for a variety of missions where the ability to hover, move omnidirectionally, and land on unprepared surfaces are a must. Innovators have postulated for several decades that rotorcraft are the optimal vehicles for cost-effective and optimal extraplanetary exploration. Rotorcraft can cover larger swaths of unexplored territory to explore various geographical features than ground vehicles, as well as identify atmospheric traits at different altitudes and locations. The Mars Ingenuity vehicle indisputably proved rotorcraft’s ability to go above and beyond in these science missions.

This lecture will explore both the advantages and limitations of rotorcraft for extraplanetary missions, including rotorcraft design for extreme environments, opportunities to leverage current autonomous uncrewed aerial systems development, and mitigation of unknown planetary characteristics that could negatively impact mission requirements. The lecture will also identify research areas where innovations can lower risk in these long-term missions.

Smith’s research encompasses computational unsteady aerodynamics and aeroelasticity for complex configurations, including rotorcraft. Smith is an AIAA Fellow, as well as Honorary Fellow of the Vertical Flight Society and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She is a Vertical Flight Society Technical Director Emeritus, and member emeritus of the Board of Directors for the Vertical Flight Society and the Vertical Lift Consortium. In 2022, Smith presented the Vertical Flight Society Nikolsky Award Lecture honoring a lifetime achievement of research and development in Vertical Flight. She is also the recipient of the 2022 AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Award, and the 61st Royal Aeronautical Society Lanchester Memorial Lecture (2023).

AIAA, with the participation and support of the NAE, created the Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in Aerospace Engineering to honor the memory of the late pioneering rocket scientist, AIAA Honorary Fellow, and NAE member Yvonne C. Brill. Brill was best known for developing a revolutionary propulsion system that remains the industry standard for geostationary satellite station-keeping. The lectureship emphasizes research or engineering issues for space travel and exploration, aerospace education of students and the public, and other aerospace issues such as ensuring a diverse and robust engineering community.

For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards program, contact Patricia A. Carr at [email protected].

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

NAE Media Contact: Sabrina Steinberg, [email protected], 202.334.2622

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 aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About NAE
Founded in 1964, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. The mission of the NAE is to advance the welfare and prosperity of the nation by providing independent advice on matters involving engineering and technology, and by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and public appreciation of engineering. Follow NAE on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Penina Axelrad Awarded 2024 Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in Aerospace Engineering

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. Axelrad’s address, “The Evolution and Impact of Global Navigation Satellite Systems,” set for Oct. 1, 2024

July 10, 2024 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) are pleased to announce that Penina Axelrad, distinguished professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in Aerospace Engineering.

Dr. Axelrad will present her lecture, “The Evolution and Impact of Global Navigation Satellite Systems,” on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 11 a.m. ET, in conjunction with the NAE Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Registration for this lecture is free and open to the public.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) provide the basis for smartphones to effectively guide us to our destinations, safe and flexible navigation for tens of thousands of airline flights per day, seamless synchronization of power grids, and precise timing of financial transactions. GNSS also enable scientific observation of Earth’s variable gravity field, soil water content and vegetation, and even Earth’s atmosphere and ocean surface winds. Dr. Axelrad’s lecture will discuss what we can learn from the remarkable evolution of a military navigation system into a global utility, and will explore where today’s advances in the utilization of signals-of-opportunity, optical communications, atomic clocks, and quantum sensing might lead.

Dr. Axelrad is a distinguished professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and 1986, respectively. In 1991, she earned her doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University.

Since 1992, she has been a faculty member in aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, with a focus on astrodynamics and satellite navigation, and she served as department chair from 2012 to 2017. She has supervised 26 doctoral graduates and taught courses on topics including GPS, dynamics and systems, spacecraft dynamics, and estimation.

Axelrad and her students have made key contributions to GPS receiver autonomous integrity monitoring, GPS-based attitude determination, the characterization of multipath effects in GPS measurements, the utilization of reflected GPS signals for remote sensing of Earth’s surface, and direct positioning. Her current research interests include new technologies and algorithms for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) in space, airborne, and land environments.

Axelrad is a member of the NAE and an AIAA Fellow. She also is a fellow of the Institute of Navigation (ION). She is a past recipient of the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the ION Johannes Kepler Award, and the Women in Aerospace Educator Award.

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

NAE Media Contact: Sabrina Steinberg, [email protected], 202.334.2622

AIAA and Club for the Future Announce Recipient of 2024 Resilient Student Scholarship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 9, 2024 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Blue Origin’s non-profit Club for the Future are pleased to announce the recipient of their 2024 Resilient Student Scholarship is Rylie Tatum from Mableton, GA. Rylie is a recent high school graduate of The Lovett School, Atlanta, GA. She will attend Princeton University in the Fall.

“We created the AIAA and Club for the Future’s Resilient Student Scholarship with a strong commitment to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the aerospace industry. As our newest scholarship, it’s specifically designed to empower and inspire students who have faced unique challenges including disabilities and socioeconomic circumstances, as well as first-generation college students. We’re thrilled to present this $10,000 scholarship and a professional mentor to Rylie. We can’t wait to see how she shapes the future of aerospace,” said Laura McGill, chair, AIAA Foundation.

Throughout high school, Rylie took the highest-level STEM courses available. She formed a robotics team at her school and has been captain of the FIRST Tech Challenge team for three years. In this role, she encourages and leads a female team. At the 2022 FIRST National Championships, Rylie conducted a presentation, “Where Are All of the Black Girls in Robotics,” where she highlighted academic research and her personal experiences to illustrate how to support and motivate girls to get into robotics.

When Rylie realized that a lack of feminine care products leads to young women missing out on their education, she began creating an app to network organizations across Atlanta to increase product access for them. “As a Black girl interested in engineering, I have experience in being the only representation in the room, but a lack of women in the engineering field partially stems from female students avoiding STEM-related classes,” noted Rylie. “Constant absenteeism for a week per month results in discouragement for aspiring female engineers, so the idea of period poverty restricting others from studying engineering prompted me to take action.” Over the last three years, she has led annual feminine care drives with the Girl Up club to provide 18,000 products and benefit 4,000 girls. She also hopes to design period product dispensers that will use sensors, capture datasets for trends, and use automation to solve a significant problem that does not receive the visibility and investment that it deserves.

Rylie’s ultimate goal is to earn her Ph.D. in Aerospace, Astronautical, or Mechanical Engineering to conduct colonization models on the moon. She aspires to be the first African American female astronaut of Caribbean descent to work on the moon or Mars and encourage and enable the next generation of STEMinists.

“We are incredibly proud to award Rylie Tatum with this scholarship, recognizing her remarkable achievements in advocating for young women,” said Michael Edmonds, President of Club for the Future. “Our collaboration with AIAA to create the Resilient Student Scholarship is focused on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion within STEAM careers. Rylie is already an inspiration for the next generation, and we look forward to seeing her impact grow. Congratulations, Rylie!”

The 2025 Resilient Student Scholarship will be open for applicants in December 2024.

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

About AIAA
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 aiaa.org or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About Club for the Future
Founded by Blue Origin, Club for the Future is a non-profit with the mission to inspire and mobilize future generations to pursue careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) for the benefit of Earth. The Club and its partners are doing this through the Postcards to Space program, providing space-focused lessons and events, and activating ambassadors around the world.