Recognition & Awards

2024

Hanspeter Schaub received the 2024 Dirk Brouwer Award from the American Astronautical Society for "transformational work in the emerging field of charged spacecraft formation flight and control and for sustained and outstanding contributions to astrodynamics research, application, and teaching."

2023

Robyn Macdonald earned a 2023 NASA Early Career Award.

Allie Anderson earned a 2023 National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Hanspeter Schaub is the winner of the 2023 CU Boulder Hazel Barnes Prize.

Scott Palo was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

SWx TREC Director Tom Berger has been been selected to serve on the National Academies Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics).

2022

Jade Morton was the recipient of the 2022 American Geophysical Union Space Physics and Aeronomy Richard Carrington Education and Public Outreach (SPARC) Award.

Tomoko Matsuo was chosen to serve on the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics, which develop a prioritized strategy of basic and applied research on the Sun-Earth system and space weather.

Yang Wang earned the 2022 Bradford Parkinson Thesis Award from the Institute of Navigation.

John Evans has been elected to a four year term on the Executive Council of the United States Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM).

Mahmoud Hussein was named a 2022 CU Boulder Marinus Smith Awardee for his work mentoring students in engineering in the campus-wide Program for Exploratory Studies.

"Flying Through Uncertainty", a paper authored by SWx TREC Executive Director Tom Berger, Associate Professor Marcus Holzinger, Senior Research Associate Eric Sutton, and Professor Jeff Thayer has been named by AGU's Space Weather as one of their Top Cited articles for 2020-2021.

Associate Professor Marcus Holzinger was elected a fellow of the American Astronautical Society.

Professor Brian Argrow was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Navigation elected Professor Dennis Akos an ION Fellow in recognition of his “fundamental contributions to the design, development, and commercialization of GNSS software-defined radio technology.”

Entrepreneur-in-Residence Mark Sirangelo was elected an AIAA fellow.

2021

Professor Jade Morton received the University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science Faculty Research Award.

Assistant Professor Robyn Macdonald earned an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Research Program Grant to push the boundaries of hypersonics.

Research Professor Delores Knipp has been appointed to a three-year term on the new Space Weather Advisory Group (SWAG).

Associate Professor Jay McMahon has been recognized with a 2021 College of Engineering and Applied Science Outstanding Faculty Graduate Advisor Award.

Assistant Research Professor Luis Zea has been chosen to serve on the Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences Research in Space steering committee by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Assistant Professor John Evans has been named 2021 Educator of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Assistant Research Professor Luis Zea earned a 2021 Outstanding Faculty Mentor award from CU Boulder.

Assistant Professor John Evans was selected as the 2021 U.S. Association of Computational Mechanics Gallagher Young Investigator Award winner.

Assistant Professor Bob Marshall earned a 2021 NSF CAREER Award.

2020

Professor Penina Axelrad was named a Distinguished Professor by the University of Colorado Board of Regents.

Professors Mahmoud Hussein and Scott Palo were each named as two of twelve winners in the 2020 CU Boulder Lab Venture Challenge.

Professor Emerita Kristine Larson won the 2020 American Geophysical Union Charles A. Whitten Medal.

Professor Jade Morton has been named the 2020 recipient of the Institution of Navigation Johannes Kepler Award.

The Rocky Mountain Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awarded Assistant Professor Allie Anderson the Young Professional Engineer of the Year award and Professor Hanspeter Schaub the Collegiate Educator of the Year award.

2020 Smead Aerospace Outstanding Faculty Awards:

• Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching & Mentoring - John Mah
• Outstanding Graduate Teaching & Mentoring - Natasha Bosanac
• Outstanding Research - Penina Axelrad
• Outstanding Junior Faculty - John Evans
• Outstanding Service - Mahmoud Hussein
• Distinguished Performance - Trudy Schwartz

Professor Emeritus Bill Emery was elected to the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB) Hall of Honor for his work on IEEE publications. Emery is one of three IEEE members receiving the honor in 2020.

Instructor Aaron Johnson received a 2020 Apprentice Faculty Grant from the American Society for Engineering Education.

Professor emerita Kristine Larson was elected to become a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Jade Morton earned the 2020 Richard B. Kershner Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineerings (IEEE) "for outstanding achievement and contribution to the technology of navigation and position equipment, systems or practices."

The late Professor George Born [post-humously] inducted into the Colorado Space Heroes Hall of Fame.

Professor David Klaus was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics.

College of Engineering and Applied Science Dean (2017-2020) and Aerospace Professor Bobby Braun was recognized as the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics 2020 recipient of the Durand Lecture for Public Service.

2019

Professor Dennis Akos and Assistant Professor Allie Anderson were named 2020 Research & Innovation Office Faculty Fellows.

Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research Senior Research Associate Paul Sánchez is being recognized with an asteroid that bears his name. The IAU has announced that asteroid 2000 VH57 is now officially named (20882) Paulsánchez.

Assistant Professor John Evans has been named a 2019 Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher for being among the top 1% worldwide in computer science citations. John is one of 107 awardees worldwide in the area of computer science.

Assistant Professor John Evans has landed a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I grant from the Army Research Office entitled “Automating U-spline fluid-structure model development for mobility applications."

Research Professor Delores Knipp has been awarded the 2019 International Baron Marcel Nicolet Medal by the European Science Foundation.

Research Professor Delores Knipp has been selected as the MIT Haystack Observatory 2019 Michael Buonsanto Memorial Lecture speaker.

Professor Mahmoud Hussein received two patents related to phononic metamaterials (#10,283,689 and #10,333,044). The patents further advance a novel concept of resonant thermal transport proposed by Hussein in 2014.

Professor Iain Boyd was appointed to the Board on Army RDT&E, Systems Acquisition, and Logistics (BARSL). The panel advises Dr. Bruce Jette, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA[ALT]).

Professor and Chair Brian Argrow has been selected as the inaugural Schaden Leadership Chair in Aerospace Engineering Sciences.

Professor Emeritus Jean Koster was named to the Advanced Industries Grant Cycle of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). He is serving on the Aerospace Subcommittee, reviewing Proof of Concept and Early Stage applications.

2019 Outstanding Faculty Awards:

• Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching & Mentoring -  Allie Anderson
• Outstanding Graduate Teaching & Mentoring - John Evans
• Outstanding Research - Steve Nerem
• Outstanding Junior Faculty - Tomoko Matsuo
• Outstanding Service - Dave Klaus
• Distinguished Performance - Jade Morton

Professor Jade Morton was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation.

Professor David Klaus received International Conference on Environmental Systems Award for Technical Excellence.

Professor Emerita Kristine Larson was recognized with a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship award to Australia.

Assistant Professor Robert Marshall's Compact Spaceborne Magnetic Observatory (COSMO) CubeSat project was announced as one of ten winners in the first phase of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency MagQuest challenge.

Professor Xinzhao Chu was honored with the 2019 CEDAR Prize Lecture for her Antarctic lidar research.

Instructor John Mah was recognized with a 2019 CU Engineering John and Mercedes Peebles Award for innovations in education.

Instructor John Mah was recognized with a 2019 CU Boulder Marinus Smith Award for having a positive impact on students.

Assistant Professor Allie Anderson was an honorable mention in the 2019 Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Outstanding Mentor Award. Anderson was nominated by Shaylah Wood.

Professor Penina Axelrad was elected into the National Academy of Engineering as a new member for 2019.

Professor Hanspeter Schaub was elected an AIAA fellow.

Research Professor Delores Knipp was officially inducted as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society at the organization's Annual Meeting on January 6 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Professor Scott Palo was recognized with a 2019 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award.

Professor Jade Morton was elected president of the Institute on Navigation (ION).

2018

Research Professor Delores Knipp was named the Chair of the Coupling Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Science Steering Committee.  The CEDAR community consists of more than 1,700 international scientists, engineers and students who focus on the space atmosphere interaction region with much emphasis on the low earth orbit environment.

Professor Dan Scheeres was elected as a Corresponding Member to the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

Professor Jade Morton was selected as a member of the US delegation (consisting of 8 women) to the Future Engineering and Global Women’s Leadership Symposium co-organized by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).  The Symposium was held on April 23-25 in Changsha, China.

Professor Hanspeter Schaub is receiving the College of Engineering and Applied Science Textbook Recognition Award recognizing the contributions of his book: “Analytical Mechanics of Space Systems,” to students’ education at CU and other universities. The award includes a certificate and a cash prize of $2,000.

Professor Emerita, Kristine Larson was awarded one of the two 2018-19 Distinguished Research Lectureships. The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors bestowed by the faculty on a fellow faculty member at CU Boulder.  The Distinguished Research Lecturer is expected to present a lecture in the fall of 2018 or spring of 2019 and will be receiving a $2,000 honorarium.

College of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Bobby Braun, also a professor of aerospace, has been appointed to a two-year term on the American Society for Engineering Education's Public Policy Committee.

Professor Emeritus Bill Emery has been named co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF). His fellow co-chair is Liese van Zee, a radio astronomer from Indiana University.

Professor Emeritus Jeff Forbes was awarded the 2018 Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOTSTEP) Distinguished Science Award "in recognition of his profound work providing the foundation for understanding the role of atmospheric tides in the electrodynamics of the ionosphere, wave driven variability in the mesosphere-thermosphere-ionosphere system, and thermospheric wind and neutral density variations due to solar flares and geomagnetic storms.”

Associate Professor Mahmoud Hussein has been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Professor David Klaus has been elected to serve a 2-year term as the Executive Director for the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation (COE CST), a consortium of ten universities.

Assistant Professor Torin Clark was selected as a Summer Faculty Research Fellow for the Office of Naval Research. He will be working this summer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the Naval Medical Research Unit in Dayton, Ohio on the Disorientation Research Device or "Kraken" centrifuge.

Assistant Professor Torin Clark was awarded the "Outstanding Mentor Award" from the CU Boulder engineering Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).

2017

Associate professor Mahmoud Hussein received a Provost's Faculty Achievement Award for Tenured Faculty in recognition of his research on thermal conductivity and the discovery of the concept of a nanophononic metamaterial.

2017 Department Faculty Awards:

• Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching & Mentoring - Jelliffe Jackson
• Outstanding Graduate Teaching & Mentoring - Kurt Maute
• Outstanding Research - Dan Scheeres
• Outstanding Junior Faculty - Jay McMahon
• Outstanding Service - Brian Argrow
• Distinguished Performance - Hanspeter Schaub

Professor Kristine Larson has been honored with a 2017 Governor's Award for High-Impact Research.

Research professor Delores Knipp spoke at the Department of Defense Science, Tech, & Innovation Exchange "STIx" conference in August. The two day event showcases projects across the Defense spectrum.

Senior Instructor Donna Gerren was named a Fellow of the Society of Allied Weight Engineers.

Assistant professor Sanghamitra Neogi was a co-author for a Web of Science Top 1% Highly Cited Paper in Physics.

Associate professor James Nabity received the 2017 Outstanding Faculty Advisor award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

Professor Mahmoud Hussein has been issued a US patent titled, “Nanophononic metamaterials”. The patent pesents a new type of material and approach whereby a standard semiconducting material, such as silicon, may be nanostructured in a manner that leads to reducing its thermal conductivity without affecting its electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient.

Research professor Delores Knipp was selected to give the 2017 CEDAR Prize Lecture. Knipp received the honor for her space weather research “unraveling the physical connection between shock-led interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and the subsequent response in the neutral thermosphere."

Professor Jeff Thayer received a patent for describing an innovative lidar remote sensing technique with the application being awarded in both the US and in 17 European Countries. The technique, called the INtrapulse PHAse Modification Induced by Scattering (INPHAMIS), provides a 50-fold increase in resolution over traditional lidar systems observing semitransparent media with direct application to observing submerged objects just below the water surface. 

Professor Kristine Larson has been awarded a Chalmers Honorary Doctorate “for her groundbreaking research on using GPS signals to measure soil moisture, snow depth, vegetation, and sea level” (2017).

Distinguished Professor Daniel Scheeres was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for his pioneering research on the motion of bodies in strongly-perturbed environments. Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer (2017).

Kenneth Jansen was one of 5 faculty & 5 laboratory researchers selected nationally for the Aurora Supercomputer Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a Depratment of Energy Office of Science User Facility (2017).

Jeffrey M. Forbes is the 2017 International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Shen Kuo Award recipient for Interdisciplinary Achievements (2017).

Alireza Doostan, Associate Processor, has received the Charles A. Hutchinson Memorial Teaching Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science (2017).

Kristine Larson received a Humboldt Research Award in recognition of her past accomplishments in research and teaching (2017).

2016

Penina Axelrad, Professor and Chair of AES, has been appointed a “member at large” of the NASA Advisory Council for two years. The Council reports directly to Charles Bolden, Jr, NASA Administrator, and provides assistance in addressing important program and policy matters related to the U.S. space program (2016).

Mahmoud Hussein and his co-authors were selected to receive a Lloyd Hamilton Donnell Applied Mechanics Reviews Paper Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2016).

Professor James Voss was awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Haley Space Flight Award (2016).

Jay McMahon, Assistant Professor, had a binary asteroid named after him, in recognition of his research work in the field of binary asteroids. (2016)

Professor James Nabity and the University of Colorado was selected by NASA and the Space Grant Foundation as one of seven universities’ teams to advance technologies for space exploration in response to the eXploration Systems and Habitation (X-Hab) 2017 Academic Innovation Challenge.  The CU graduate project team will investigate CO2 removal using ionic liquid (IL) based membranes and sorbent beds. This selection continues the previous years’ selection of CU-Boulder for the X-Hab Challenge, under the leadership of Joe Tanner or Prof. David Klaus (2016)

Professor Mahmoud Hussein is one of only 100 engineers from industry, universities and government labs invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineer’s 2016 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (2016)

Professor Hanspeter Schaub - Distinguished Alumni Award from the Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering department (2016)

Professor Alireza Doostan – Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring (2016)

Professor Ken Jansen – Outstanding Graduate Teaching and Mentoring (2016)

Professor Kurt Maute – Outstanding Research (2016)

Associate Professor Zoltan Sternovsky – Outstanding Junior Faculty (2016)

Professor Jeff Thayer – Outstanding Service (2016)

Scott Palo – Distinguished Performance (2016)

Professor Jeff Thayer is the recipient of the 2016 BFA Award in Excellence in Research Award (2016)

Professor Brian Argrow was named to the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2016)

Professor Brian Argrow was selected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (2016)

2015

Professor Kristine Larson was selected to receive the Faculty Research Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science (2015)

Professor Scott Palo was selected to receive the Max S. Peters Faculty Service Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science (2015)

Professor Jeffrey Forbes was selected by the European Geosciences Union for the 2016 Julius Bartels Medal (2015)

Professor George Born has been awarded the title “Distinguished Professor,” the highest honor the University of Colorado confers on its faculty (2015)

Professor Penina Axelrad receives the 2015 Aerospace Educator Award from the Women in Aerospace association (2015)

Associate Professor James Nabity has been selected as an AIAA Associate Fellow (2015)

Assistant Professor Alireza Doostan has been selected to receive the 2015 Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award (2015)

Professor Xinzhao Chu’s group was awarded a new NSF project of $1.12M over five years to make high-resolution Na Doppler lidar observations of the middle and upper atmosphere at McMurdo, Antarctica (2015)

Senior Instructor Joe Tanner won the 2015 Sullivan Carlson Award (2015)

Assistant Professor Alireza Doostan has been selected for a Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award for pre-tenured faculty (2015)

Associate Professor Eric Frew has been selected for a Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award for faculty with tenure (2015)

Professor Bill Emery, elected to be the 2016-17 chair of the IEEE Periodicals Committee (2015)

Research Professor Jay McMahon, appointed Co-Investigator of the OSIRIS-Rex asteroid sample return mission (2015)

Professor Bill Emery, awarded a Fulbright Visiting Fellowship to visit Gdynia Maritime University in Poland where he will teach a class in Infrared Remote Sensing, and help them to set up a graduate program in marine remote sensing (2015)

Professor Bill Emery, made Editor in Chief of the Journal on Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, a journal of the American Meteorological Society (2015)

Research Professor Jay McMahon, PI for NASA STTR Phase I award ($125k for 12 months) for “A Robust Architecture for Repeated Sampling of Small Bodies" (2015)

Professor Zoltan Sternovsky, is PI on a new proposal with NASA to study the ablation of micrometeoroids in laboratory conditions. The total is about $500k for CU over three years (2015)

Professor Alireza Doostan, selected for the AIAA-Rocky Mountain Educator of the Year (College) award (2015)

Professor Dale Lawrence, issued a patent (along with Research Associate Sutha Aphanuphong) for their invention "Endoscope apparatus, actuators and methods therefor." (2015)

Professor Kristine Larson, awarded International European Geosciences Union Christiaan Huygens Medal (2015)

2014

Research Professor Louis Stodieck, received the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) Orr Reynolds Distinguished Service Award (2014)

Professor Dennis Akos, received a one year $503K award from Space Sciences and Engineering LLC for a project titled "Pyxis Receiver Development" (2015)

Professor Steve Nerem, won the inaugural American Astronautical Society Earth Science and Applications Award (2014)

Professor Alireza Doostan, received an NSF Award of $500,000 for his project, "CAREER: Fast Surrogate Modeling for Design under Uncertainty of Complex Engineering Systems" (2015)

Professor Kristine Larson, awarded a new grant from NASA that is almost $1M (2014)

Professor Donna Gerren, 2014 Charles A. Hutchinson Memorial Teaching Award from the CU-Boulder College of Engineering & Applied Science (2014)

Professor Dan Scheeres, University of Colorado Distinguished Professor (2014)

Professor Kristine Larson, The Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Creativity Prize for Water, awarded to Dr. Larson and the GPS Reflections Group (Prof. Eric Small of CU-Boulder, Dr. Valery Zavorotny of NOAA, and Dr. John Braun of UCAR) (2014)

Research Professor Delores Knipp, Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Eos, AGU's weekly Transactions American Geophysical Union (2014)

Professor Hanspeter Schaub, Outstanding Young Alumni at Texas A&M University Aerospace Alumni Academy (2014)

Trudy Schwartz, Marinus Smith Award from CU Parents Association (2014)

2013

Professor Eric Frew, AIAA Associate Fellow (2013)

Professor Hanspeter Schaub, AAS Fellow (2013)

Associate Professor Xinzhao Chu, Provost's Faculty Achievement Award (2013)

Professor George Born, Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award (Special), College of Engineering and Applied Science (2013)

Associate Professor Eric Frew, selected to participate in the Excellence in Leadership Program for 2013-2014

Dr. Donna Gerren, appointed Academic Board Chair of the Society of Allied Weight Engineers (2013)

Assistant Prof Mahmoud Hussein, NSF CAREER award for his proposal, “Nonlinear, Dissipative Mechanics of Phononic Materials: An Integrated Research and Education Plan” (2013)

Professor Lakshmi Kantha, elected to Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

Professor Kristine Larson, BFA Excellence in Research Award, University of Colorado Boulder (2013)

Professor Scott Palo, PI for fourth round of NASA Cubesat Missions to launch in 2014, 2015, and 2016; selected as founding member of AIAA Small Satellite Technical Committee (2013).

Professor Hanspeter Schaub, AIAA 2013 Summerfield Book Award for “Analytical Mechanics of Space Systems, 2nd edition”

2012

Professor Daniel Scheeres, American Astronautical Society’s Dirk Brouwer Award for 2012.

Prof Jeff Thayer served on a panel in Washington, DC on Monday, January 28. The panel, co-hosted by the American chemical Society’s Science & Congress Project and the American Geophysical Union, discussed “Space Technology Policy: Exploring Options.” 

Instructor Donna Gerren received an AIAA Special Service Citation "In recognition for your outstanding leadership, planning and executing as General Chair for Region V Student Paper Conference 2012 hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder".

According to the 2010 NRC rankings of PhD programs in aerospace engineering, CU-Aerospace ranks fourth nationally in terms of program quality. The Sept 2012 U.S. News & World Report ranks our graduate program as 13th overall and 8th among public graduate programs in aerospace engineering; our undergraduate program is ranked 12th in the nation and 8th among public undergraduate programs.

The Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences had research awards of $21.8 million in fiscal year 2012, the highest department on the CU-Boulder campus.

CU-Boulder has one of the highest numbers of astronaut alumni in the nation and a high participation rate in the NASA space program. To date, there are 20 CU-affiliated astronauts; 19 have flown in space.

The Boulder Faculty Assembly announced that Professor Hanspeter Schaub is the recipient of the BFA Excellence in Teaching Award, and Professor Brian Argrow is the recipient of the BFA Excellence in Service Award. Dr. Schaub is the Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, and Dr. Argrow recently completed a five-year term as Associate Dean for Education in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. (2011-2012)

The Institute of Navigation has named Professor Penina Axelrad of CCAR as the winner of the Institute of Navigation Burka Award, which is "to recognize the best technical article having appeared in NAVIGATION, The Journal of The Institute of Navigation in the last year volume." Prof Axelrad is being recognized for her paper titled: "Collective Detection and Direct Positioning Using Multiple GNSS Satellites" that appeared in the Winter issue (Volume 58, No. 4).

Two different publications feature activities of faculty and students in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences in their January 2012 issues: The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society displays the RECUV equipment on its cover with an article written by RECUV faculty inside, while Aviation Week's January 23/30 issue, "2012 Aerospace: Intelligence for an Essential Industry", describes Prof. Ryan Starkey's graduate student team that is building a small supersonic UAV named Gojett.

AGU Fellow Professor William Emery has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Only one in a thousand members are elected to Fellowship of the AGU each year. (2012)

AIAA Fellow Professor Jeffrey M. Forbes, chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, was elected to the grade of Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. AIAA Fellows are persons of distinction who have made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.

The "Hyperion Green Aircraft Project", an AES graduate project sponsored by Professor Jean Koster, received the "Best Paper Award" from the AIAA Design Engineering Technical Committee. Prof Koster and graduate student Lydia McDowell made the presentation. Student engineering teams developed a 3m (10ft) wingspan, composite model aircraft inspired after the NASA-Boeing X-48B blended wing body to use as a test bed for advanced technical studies. The aircraft project started as an international collaboration to develop an aerial vehicle to investigate new technologies with a focus on performance efficiencies. An international team of 32 graduate and undergraduate students conceived, designed, implemented, and operated the aircraft within 9 months. Project partners are UCB, The University of Sydney, Australia, and the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Flight testing was conducted successfully in April 2011.

Aerospace Engineering Sciences Outstanding Staff Member Service Award, given each March:

• Nate Coyle (2024)
• America Palacios (2023)
• Nicole Simmons (2022)
• Maggie Kolicko (2021)
• Kassadi Gabriel (2020)
• Matt Rhode (2019)
• Melissa Piper (2019)
• Margie Schneider (2017)
• Matt Rhode (2016)
• Lauren Cole (2015)
• Sarah Melssen (2014)
• Deborah Mellblom (2013)
• Joanie Wiesman (2012)
• Patti Gassaway (2011)
• Annie Brookover (2010)
• Claire Yang (2009)

Amanda McKenzie earned the Wind Waker Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Champion Award at the 2023 CU Boulder Student Success Community Annual Conference (SSCAC).

Amanda McKenzie received a 2022 Women Who Make a Difference award from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Shankini Doraisingam of Bioserve Space Technologies was recognized with a NASA Silver Snoopy Award for her work with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. (2018)

2022-2023

Senior Design Team HEIST took 2nd place at the AIAA Region V competition for their lunar habitat VR maintenance and repair system project.

Team DROPS senior design project won first place at AIAA SciTech International Student Conference.

Seven undergraduate students earned NASA Pathways Internships: Barbara De Figueiredo Vera, David McGraw, Sophia Orlandella, Shawn Patel, Aaditya Pore, Alexandra Putman, and Anthony Storm

Undergraduates Margot Daberkow, Skylar Edwards, and Sweta Alla all received 2023 Brooke Owens Fellowships.

Samuel Kurtin received a 2023 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship.

Dominic J. Plaia earned a Fall 2022 Outstanding Graduating Student Perseverence Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

2021-2022

2020-2021

Emma Markovich was named a 2021 Aviation Week 20 Twenties winner. The honor recognizes top science, technology, engineering and math undergraduate and graduate students.

Smead Aerospace awarded numerous students and senior design teams at the 2021 Virtual Graduation Ceremony:

• Most Outstanding Senior: Emma Markovich
• Senior Design Team Awards
  • Best Systems Engineering Process
    • Section 1 Awardee: VORTEX (Mohamed Aichiouene, Stephen Albert, Joseph Buescher, Bill Chabot, Colton Cline, Brandon Cummings, Roland Ilyes, Delaney Jones, Cameron Kratt, Michael Patterson, Joseph Rooney, Justin Troche)
    • Section 1 Honorable Mention: SHADE (Quinton Dombrowski, John Hugo, Marlin Jacobson, Katie Nyland, Davis Peirce, Robert Redfern, Vinay Simlot, Elliott Tung, Benjamin Vidaurre, Jacob Weiner)
    • Section 2 Awardee: CAST (Roland Bailey, Jason Balke, Isaac Goldner, Sam Hartman, Angel Hoffman, Adam Holdridge, Conner Martin, Hugo Stetz, Cameron Turman, Trace Valade, Griffin Van Anne, Reade Warner)
  • Best Verification and Validation
    • Section 1 Awardee: VORTEX (Mohamed Aichiouene, Stephen Albert, Joseph Buescher, Bill Chabot, Colton Cline, Brandon Cummings, Roland Ilyes, Delaney Jones, Cameron Kratt, Michael Patterson, Joseph Rooney, Justin Troche)
    • Section 1 Honorable Mention: CHAIR (Cody Bahan, Rhys Bass, Sarah Foley, Laney Franklin, Cole Gray, Carter Jackson, Michelle Lin, Jason Magno, Baily Rice, Andrew Ringer, Dean Widhalm, Aiden Wilson)
    • Section 2 Awardee: P4LO (Sam D'Souza, Ruben Hinojosa Torres, Nathan Jager, Alex Lowry, Ventura Morales, Fernando Palafox, Brendan Palmer, Ponder Stine, Ian Thomas, Dawson Weis)
  • Best Technical Communication
    • Section 1 Awardee: NanoSAM II (Daniel Barth, Matthew Bridges, Jashan Chopra, Axel Haugland, Abby Hause, Jackson Kistler, David Perkins, Donavon Schroeder, Ryan Smithers, Emma Tomlinson, Daniel Wagner)
    • Section 2 Awardee: FLASH (Ricky Carlson, Shray Chauhan, Andrew Fu, Jake Fuhrman, Courtney Kelsey, Ishaan Kochhar, Julian Lambert, Fiona Mcgann, Kunal Sinha, Erik Stolz)
  • Best Engineering Understanding
    • Section 1 Awardee: WASP (Maddie Dube, Adam Elsayed, Samuel Felice, Foster Greer, Ansh Jerath, Aidan Kirby, Emma Markovich, Bailey Roker, Parker Simmons, Matthew Zola)
    • Section 2 Awardees: CAST & RESCUE
      • CAST (Roland Bailey, Jason Balke, Isaac Goldner, Sam Hartman, Angel Hoffman, Adam Holdridge, Conner Martin, Hugo Stetz, Cameron Turman, Trace Valade, Griffin Van Anne, Reade Warner)
      • RESCUE (Abdulla Alameri, Ryan Hughes, Seth Krein, Alex Kryuchkov, Michael Martinson, Riley Swift, Johnathan Tucker, Frederick Vurst, Evan Welch, Jack Zeildik)
    • Section 2 Honorable Mention: DOTCOM (Doug Brough, Sebastian Damm, Jennifer Gurtler, Buck Guthrie, Forrest Jordan, Conner Lewis, Tristan Liu, Caelan Maitland, Hunter Rohlman, Sam Taylor)
• Senior Design Individual Awards
  • Most Effective Project Manager
    • Section 1 Awardee: Emma Markovich (WASP)
    • Section 1 Honorable Mention: Bill Chabot (VORTEX)
    • Section 2 Awardee: Connor Martin (CAST)
    • Section 2 Honorable Mention: Samuel D’Souza (P4LO) & Kyle Li (RIVeR)
  • Most Effective Systems Engineer
    • Section 1 Awardee: Michael Patterson (VORTEX)
    • Section 1 Honorable Mention: Benjamin Vidaurre (SHADE)
    • Section 2 Awardee: Isaac Goldner (CAST)
    • Section 2 Honorable Mention: Abdulla Alameri (RESCUE)
  • Technical Leadership - Mechanical
    • Section 1 Awardee: Madison Dube (WASP)
    • Section 1 Honorable Mention: Niko de Boucaud (ARGOS) & Aidan Sesnic (SIMBA)
    • Section 2 Awardees: Joseph Derks (OSPRI) & Michael Martinson (RESCUE)
  • Technical Leadership - Electrical
    • Section 1 Awardees: Jashan Chopra & Emma Tomlinson (NanoSAM II) 
    • Section 1 Honorable Mention: Aidan Kirby (WASP)
    • Section 2 Awardees: Fernando Palafox (P4LO)
    • Section 2 Honorable Mention: Douglas Brough (DOTCOM) & Riely Swift (RESCUE)
  • Technical Leadership - Software
    • Section 1 Awardee: Trevor Slack (ARGOS)
    • Section 2 Awardees: Conner Lewis (DOTCOM) & Jonathan Tucker (RESCUE)
    • Section 2 Honorable Mention: Ian Thomas (P4LO) & Peter Amorese (RIVeR)
  • Technical Leadership - Modeling, Analysis & Simulation
    • Section 1 Awardee: Keith Poletti (SpaceNet) 
    • Section 2 Awardee: Forrest Jordan (DOTCOM)
    • Section 2 Honorable Mention: Trace Valade (CAST)
  • Technical Leadership - Testing
    • Section 1 Awardee: Aidan Kirby (WASP)
    • Section 2 Awardee: Angel Hoffman (CAST)
    • Section 2 Honorable Mention: Fernando Palafox (P4LO) & Jordan Abell (RIVeR)

Michelle Lin received two awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Lin is a 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Undergraduate in Research Award and Outstanding Undergraduate in Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Award.

Senior design teams earned second and third place in the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Region V Student Paper competition.

• 2nd Place: Team FLASH - Functional LiDAR Analysis of Structural Health - Team Roster: Ricky Carlson, Shray Chauhan, Andrew Fu, Jake Fuhrman, Courtney Kelsey, Ishaan Kochhar, Julian Lambert, Fiona Mcgann, Kunal Sinha, Erik Stolz.
• 3rd Place: Team SpaceNet - Passive Orbit Determination Based on Time Delay of Arrival - Team Roster: Ryan Burdick, Samuel Firth, Noah Francis, Jordan Gage, E Owen, Tyler Pirner, Keith Poletti, Ryan Prince, Israel Quezada Cordova, Colin Ruark, Benji Smith.

Two undergraduates and three graduate students earned the 2021 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) from the National Science Foundation.

• Anton Buynovskiy (Advisor: Jeff Thayer)
• Gregory Lund (Advisor: Chris Heckman)
• Robert Sasse (Advisor: Brian Argrow)
• Kieran Smith (Advisor: Torin Clark)
• Shu-Yu (Michelle) Lin (Advisor: Allie Anderson, David Klaus)

Brian Muriithi was named a 2020–21 University of Colorado Boulder Student Leader of the Year.

Anthony Danna and Chava Friedman each received 2021 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowships.

Grace Antonucci, Maria Callas, and Jasmin Chadha each won 2021 Brooke Owens Fellowships.

Teagan Browne earned a 2020 SMART Scholarship from the US Department of Defense.

2019-2020

Smead Aerospace senior design teams earned first and third place in the 2020 AIAA Region V Student Paper awards team category:

• 1st Place: Team EMU - Alejandro Castillo, Becca Rivera, Dakota Labine, Henry Moore, Libby Hasse, Matthew Lehmann, Max Alger-Meyer, Michael Flores, Mitchell Spencer, Nathan Castille, Nathan Hetzel, Shawna McGuire. Advisor: Jean Koster
• 3rd Place - Team NanoSAM - Conner McLeod, Jaykob Velasquez, Aanshi Panchal, Jared Cantilina, Jacob Romero, Matt Weber, Josh Horst, Sara Reitz, Jessica Harris, Hui Min Tang, Quinn LaBarge. Advisor: Zoltan Sternovsky

Addison Woodard was selected for a 2020 NASA Pathways Internship at Johnson Space Center.

Three University of Colorado Boulder aerospace students were selected as members of the 2020 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program:

• Megan Jones, aerospace junior (Research Advisor: Jay McMahon)
• Alex Liem, aerospace master's student (Advisor: Jim Nabity)
• Michelle Lin, aerospace and applied math junior (Research Advisors: Allison Anderson and David Klaus)

Kaitlyn Olson earned a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellowship.

Aviation Week recognized four CU Boulder aerospace undergraduate and graduate students as 2020 "Tomorrow's Engineering Leaders: The 20 Twenties:"

• Valerie Bernstein, aerospace PhD student (Advisor: Delores Knipp)
• Michelle Lin, aerospace and applied math undergraduate junior (Research advisors: Allison Anderson and David Klaus)
• Simon Shuham, aerospace master's, conferred Dec. 2019 (Advisor: Francisco López Jiménez)
• Gautham Viswaroopan, aerospace master's, conferred Dec. 2019 (Advisor: Bob Marshall)

2018-2019

Aaron Aboaf, Nicholas Renninger, and Lara Lufkin earned 2nd place in the student competition at the 2019 AIAA / Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites.

Senior Design Team Awards

• Best Build Quality – ARGUS (Trevor Barth, Anahid Blaisdell, Adam Dodge, Geraldine Fuentes, Thomas Fulton, Adam Hess, Janell Lopez, Diana Mata, Tyler Murphy, Stuart Penkowsky, Michael Tzimourakas)
• Best Engineering Understanding – SPECS (Cedric Camacho, Yuzhang Chen, John Cutler, Greg Frank, Markus Fuernkranz, Preston FitzRandolph, Dan Harthan, Matt Knickerbocker, Madison Junker, Daniel Castillo Oropeza, Sam Piper)
• Best Systems Engineering Process – HERMES (Brindan Adhikari, Colin Chen, Katelyn Griego, Junzhe He, Ashley Montalvo, Marcos Mejia, Quinter Nyland, Chase Pellazar, Alexander Sandoval, Brandon Santori, Alexis Sotomayor, Michely Tenardi)
• Best Technical Communication – GHOST (Kira Altman, Ginger Beerman, Lucas Calvert, Connie Childs, Blaine Covington, Seth Hill, Rachel Mamich, Duncan McGough, Connor Ott, Jack Toland, Jacob Vendl)
• Best Verification and Validation – ARES (Matt Alexander, Carson Brumley, Will Butler, Alejandro Corral, Elliott Davis, Ryan Davis, Cody Goldman, Thomas Kisylia, Connor Myers, Erika Polhamus, Alec Stiller, Yuma Yagi)

Senior Design Individual Awards

    Outstanding Leadership: Electrical – Dan Harthan and Quentin Moore
    Outstanding Leadership: Manufacturing – Colin Chen and Michely Tenardi
    Outstanding Leadership: Mechanical – Aaron Aboaf
    Outstanding Leadership: Modeling and Simulation – Nicholas Renniger and Jiarui Wang
    Outstanding Leadership: Project Management – Hailee Baughn
    Outstanding Leadership: Software – Madison Junker
    Outstanding Leadership: Systems Engineering – Erika Polhamus
    Outstanding Leadership: Testing – Samuel Pipe

Senior Design Team HERMES  earned 1st Place in the Society of Allied Weight Engineers International Paper Conference.

Senior design Team VANTAGE earned the People's Choice Award at the 2019 CU Engineering Projects Expo. VANTAGE is comprised of Aaron Aboaf, Dylan Bossie, Sean Downs, Justin Fay, Marshall Herr, Josh Kirby, Lara Lufkin, Richard Moon, Nicholas Renninger, Zach Talpas, and Jerry Wang.

Smead Aerospace senior design teams swept the April 2019 AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference awards team category:

• 1st Place - Team HEPCATS: Alexander Baughman, Colin Brown, Jordan Lerner, Christopher Peercy, Valerie Lesser, Vishranth Siva, Matthew Skogen, Braden Solt, Benjamin Spencer, Colin Sullivan, Kian Tanner, Advisor – Dr. Donna Gerren
• 2nd Place - Team HERMES: Brindan Adhikari, Colin Chen, Katelyn Griego, Junzhe He, Ashley Montalvo, Quinter Nyland, Chase Pellazar, Alexander Sandoval, Brandon Santori, Alexis Sotomayor, Michely Tenardi, Advisor – Dr. Kathryn Wingate
• 3rd Place - Team ARES: Matt Alexander, Carson Brumley, Will Butler, Alejandro Corral, Elliott Davis, Cody Goldman, Thomas Kisylia, Connor Myers, Erika Polhamus, Alec Stiller, Yuma Yagi, Advisor – Dr. Donna Gerren

Gregory Frank received a Donald Mackison Student Writing Award Scholarship from the Committee on Engineering Scholarships for his paper: The Sun’s Fury.

Engineering students Caleb Inglis (AeroEngr) and Kelly Winn (MechEngr) represented CU Boulder in February at the Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering Case Competition in Bethesda, Maryland and earned fourth place.

Aerospace undergraduate students Kira Altman, Dallas Capozza, and Michelle Lin each earned 2019 Brooke Owens Fellowships. The aerospace trio are among five CU Boulder students receiving the honor. The highly competitive program provides paid internships and mentoring to exceptional undergraduate women seeking careers in aviation or space exploration. Thirty-eight fellowships were awarded nationwide.

Cadet Zachary Donovan, US Air Force ROTC, a senior in Aerospace Engineering Received the Charles H. Sells Scholarship from the NY City Post of the Society of American Military Engineers.

2017-2018

Junior Aaron Aboaf was one of only 20 recipients of the 2018 "20 Twenties" award from Aviation week and AIAA, which recognize 20 students every year who are nominated by their universities on the basis of their academic performance, civic contribution and research or design project.

Sophomore Matthew Knickerbocker was named the 2018 Society of Allied Weight Engineers (SAWE) Scholar.

Senior design Team KESSLER (Kinesthetic Engineered Solution to Space Litter and Exhausted Resources) placed 3rd in the Team Category of the AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference in April in St. Louis, Missouri.  Their advisor is Dr. Jade Morton. The team members are:

The CU Rocket Buffaloes team (advisor: J. Nabity) tied for 2nd place in the Flight Category at the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium 2018 First Nations Launch Competition (Apr 19-21, 2018). Team members include: Alyvia Hildebrand, Bruno Armas, Aaron Ashley, Mason Moran and Joel Funtanilla. 

Ryan Aronson has received the Sigma Gamma Tau North national aerospace engineering honor society Central Region 2018 Undergraduate Award. 

'CU Skunks' of Aerospace received a grant from the Engineering Excellence Fund (EEF) to compete in NASA's Digital Twin Challenge 2018. The team is made up of graduate & undergraduate students.

2016-2017

Ian Geraghty was awarded Undergraduate Honorable Mention at the 2017 CEDAR workshop for his poster “Multi-year survey of short period gravity wave parameters in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere at McMurdo (77.8S, 166.7E), Antarctica."

Matthew Hurst received the 2017 Department Outstanding Senior Award.

AES Senior Project Team REPTAR (Kevin Faggiano, Dustin Fishelman, Aaron McCusker, Craig Wenkheimer, Calvin Jon Buechler, Cody Brian Gondek, Lee Huynh, Himanshi Singhai, William Sear, and Nathan Yeo. Team advisor: Prof. Brian Argrow) earned 1st Place in the Team Category at the 2017 AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference in Denver. The team was sponsored by the Raytheon Company.

AES Senior Project Team CASCADE (Chad Eberl, Matthew Fromm, Timothy Kiley, Haoyu Li, Tony Ly, Andrew Mcbride, Noel Puldon, Keegan Sotebeer and Morgan Tilong. Team advisor: Dr. Jelliffe Jackson); earned 2nd Place in the Team Category at the 2017 AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference in Denver. The team was sponsored by Sierra Nevada Corporation.

Amber Bishop, was awarded a $2,000 scholarship from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACECS) of Colorado. The 2016-17 scholarships were awarded to 13 students representing seven Colorado colleges with engineering programs accredted by the Accreditation Board for engineering & Technology, based on their academic records, involvement in student chapters of professional organizations, and their community service.

Christine Reilly has been selected as a Brooke Owens Fellow for Virgin Galactic. 

Christine Reilly and Matthew Hurst were named to the Aviation Week 20 Twenties list for 2017.

1^st Place, AIAA SciTech 2017 International Student Conference: Senior Project ELSA. Team Members:  Darren Combs, Gabriel Frank, Sara Grandone, Colton Hall, Daniel Johnson, Trevor Luke, Scott Mende, Daniel Nowicki, & Benjamin Stringer. “Project ELSA: Europa Lander for Science Acquisition." The team was sponsored by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. Team Advisor:  Dr. Robert Marshall.

Matthew Hurst has been awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, created by the Mercury 7 Astronauts. It is given to students who display “initiative, creativity, and excellence in their chosen field.”

Matthew Hurst has earned the Marshall Scholarship, a two-year grant to pursue an advanced degree at a United Kingdom Institution of his choice.

2015-2016

The FISH&CHIPs Senior Project team (advisor:  Mr. Joe Tanner) received First Place in both the student poster and student paper competitions at the 75th SAWE International Conference on Mass Properties Engineering in Denver. Their paper was titled, “Minimizing Mass on a Spacecraft Structure.” The team members are Megan Howard, Davis Peterson, Lewis Gillis, Evan Graser, Jorge Cervantes, Taylor Maurer, Larry Burkey, Andrei Iskra and Margaret Williams. The team was sponsored by Surrey Satellite Technology.

Max Feldman and Jonathan Sobol placed Second in the SAWE paper competition and Third in the poster competition with their paper and poster entitled, “Advanced Lightweight 3D Structures (AL3DS) Manufacturing Design Concept.”  This work was done in an independent study class advised by Dr. Donna Gerren. 

Senior Design Project 2015-2016 ELSA (advisor: R. Marshall) won first place in the Team Division at the AIAA Region V Student Conference. The project sponsor is Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. ELSA is designing and building a self-contained probe called the NeoPod to collect, store, and transmit data via RF to the Ground Station (also designed and implemented by the project team). Team Members: Darren Combs, Gabe Frank, Sara Grandone, Colton Hall, Daniel Johnson, Trevor Luke, Scott Mende, Daniel Nowicki, and Ben Stringer.

2014-2015

Congratulations to our CU winners at the AIAA Region V Student paper Conference held in Wichita, Kansas, April 22-24, 2015:

2nd Place, Team Category:  Methane Engine Design for Unmanned Small Aircraft (MEDUSA)
Team Members:  Daniel Frazier, Nathan Genrich, Abram Jorgenson, Christopher Jirucha, Crawford Leeds, Huikang Ma, Alex Truskowski, Carlos Torres and Corey Wilson
Team Advisor:  Dr. Jelliffe Jackson

3rd Place, Team Category:  RAppelling Cave Exploration Rover (RACER)
Team Members:  Thomas Green, Michael Hanson, Nicole Harris, Hunter Hoopes, Dustin Larsen, Gregory McQuie, Drew Penrod, John Russo and Casey Zahorik
Team Advisor:  Dr. James Nabity

3rd Place, Undergraduate Category:  Use of Sensitivity Analysis and Historical Comparison to Correct Errant Aircraft Dynamic Modes
Author & Presenter:  Alex Truskowski
Advisor:  Dr. Donna Gerren

Ashley Zerr, May 2015 Oustanding Graduate for Service (advisor: S. Palo)

Kirstyn Johnson, May 2015 Outstanding Graduate for Academic Achievement (advisor: D. Klaus)

Christopher Nie and Leonard Komow (Senior Project Team: ODINSun), 3rd Place in the team category at AIAA Region V Student Conference (advisor: J. Nabity)

Kevin Dinkel, May 2014 Outstanding Graduate for Research award from the College of Engineering & Applied Science (2014) (advisor: HP. Schaub)

KatieRae Williamson and Jonathan Wu, Second Place Team Award at AIAA SciTech Forum, International Student Conference (2014) (advisor: S. Palo)

2013-2014

Jarred Langhals, Outstanding Graduate Award for Service (2013)

Kyle Kemble, DEAA Distinguished Senior Award (2013)

Greg McQuie and Dave Thomas (sophomores), on CU Applied Math team rated “Outstanding” in the International Mathematical Contest in Modeling (2013)

Christopher Nie (junior), selected for the NASA Student Ambassador Program (2013); UMC Schafer Leadership Scholarship (advisor: D. Klaus)

2012-2013

Emily Proano (junior), Virginia Tech for Space Science summer 2013 fellowship

Michael Skeen (BS/MS), Outstanding Graduate of the College (one of two) (2013) (advisor: R. Starkey)

Senior Project (2012-2013 team) Trac Sat, supported by Surrey Satellite Systems. Their paper titled "Testbed for CubeSat Propulsion System Control Algorithms" accepted for presentation at the 2nd IAA Conference on University Satellites Missions and Cubesat Workshop in Rome, Italy (February 2013) Students Alex Kim, Sarah M. Smith, Andrew Broucek, Zach Cuseo, Mike Opland, Mike Trobridge, Jim Bader, Bill Whitmire (advisor: D. Lawrence)

DayStar (2011-2012 senior project, advisor S. Palo) won the SpaceX Grand Prize and $1,000 at the American Astronomical Society Guidance, Navigation & Congrol Conference, Breckenridge, 2013 (also advised by H. Schaub)

A Colorado Space Grant team, primarily composed of first-year students from the AES Gateway to Space class, was one of 12 selected from across the country to have its payload launched on the High Altitude Student Platform, a flight program supported by the NASA Balloon Program Office and Louisiana Space Grant Consortium. The Hydrogen-alpha Exploration with Long Infrared Observation Systems (HELIOS) payload launched in September from Ft Sumner, NM, and HELIOS II continues the effort.

Senior Project (2012-2013) LEOPARD, first place, AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference (advisor: S. Palo)

Senior Project (2012-2013) TracSat, second place, AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference (advisor: D. Lawrence)

2024

PhD student Alex Meyer (Advisor: Dan Scheeres) had an asteroid named after him by the International Astronomical Union in recognition of research he conducted on the dynamics of binary asteroid systems and how they are affected by close planetary flybys.

2023

Aviation Week has announced aerospace PhD students Amrita Singh (Advisor: Jim Nabity) and David Dezell Turner (Advisor: Jay McMahon) are "Class of 2024 20 Twenties Winners" recognizing leading engineering students.

Three University of Colorado Boulder aerospace PhD students have been named 2023 Draper Scholars.

• Kristen Ahner (Advisor: Dan Scheeres)
• Laura Davies (Advisor: Penny Axelrad)
• Kian Shakerin (Advisor: Jay McMahon)

Four Smead Aerospace PhD students earned 2023 Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellowships.

• Grace Calkins (Advisor: Jay McMahon)
• Kaylee Champion (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub)
• Renee Spear (Advisor: Natasha Bosanac)
• Anne Theurkauf (Advisor: Morteza Lahijanian)

2022

Master’s student Kaitlyn Hauber earned first place in the 2022 NASA Human Research Program Investigator’s Workshop poster competition.

Master's student Alessandro Verniani received a 2022 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship.

PhD student Yang Wang (Advisor: Jade Morton) earned an Outstanding Student Presentation Award from the American Geophysical Union for his work “Inland Water Body Surface Gradient Observations Using Spaceborne GNSS-R Carrier Phase Measurements.”

2021

PhD students Daniel da Silva (Advisor: Xinlin Li), Sarah Luettgen (Advisor: Jeff Thayer), Riley Reid (Advisor: Robert Marshall), and Kevin Sacca (Advisor: Jeff Thayer) have each been named 2021 Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST).

PhD students Victoria Kravets (Advisor: Torin Clark) and Bharath Tata (Advisor: Jim Nabity) each received 2021 NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) fellowships.

PhD student and Smead Scholar Connor Morency (Advisor: Ken Jansen) earned a 2021 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG).

PhD student Pawel Sawicki (Advisor: Iain Boyd) is the lead author on a paper that won the AIAA Thermophysics Best Student Paper award at SciTech 2021.

Smead Aerospace honored numerous outstanding graduate students with awards at the 2021 Virtual Graduation Ceremony

• Excellence in Research: Yang Wang (Adv: Jade Morton)

• Excellence in Service: Katya Arquilla (Adv: Allie Anderson)

• Excellence in Teaching: Dawson Beedy (Adv: Nisar Ahmed)

• Vise Award (Two Winners): Alexa Putnam (Adv: Steve Nerem), Shayla Mutschler (Adv: Penina Axelrad)

PhD student Álvaro Romero Calvo (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub) won the Rafael del Pino Excellence Fellowship. The program, open to Spanish citizens, aims to promote the training of Spanish leaders, to boost entrepreneurial spirit and activity in Spain, and encourage research and dissemination of knowledge.

Two undergraduates and three graduate students earned the 2021 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) from the National Science Foundation.

• Anton Buynovskiy (Advisor: Jeff Thayer)
• Gregory Lund (Advisor: Chris Heckman)
• Robert Sasse (Advisor: Brian Argrow)
• Kieran Smith (Advisor: Torin Clark)
• Shu-Yu (Michelle) Lin (Advisor: Allie Anderson, David Klaus)

PhD student Álvaro Romero-Calvo (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub) won the 2021 Ken Souza Memorial Student Spaceflight Research Program, sponsored by the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, earning him a research payload slot on a future Blue Origin suborbital launch.

PhD student Vishal Ray (Advisor: Dan Scheeres) earned the People's Choice Award in the 2021 CU Boulder Three Minute Thesis competition for his presentation, The Story of Space Junk.

PhD students Abhishektha Boppana (Advisor: Allie Anderson) and Rachel Rise (Advisor: Torin Clark) earned first and second place, respectively, in the 2021 NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop student poster competition.

Four AES graduate students earned 2021 Beverly Sears Graduate Student Research Grants from the Graduate School. Each will receive up to $1,000 grants:

• Kyle Marquis (Advisor: López Jiménez)
• Young-Young Shen (Advisor: Anderson)
• Samantha Sheppard (Advisor: Farnsworth)
• Taralicin Deka (Advisor: McMahon)

2020

Master's student Johnny Zhang (Advisor: Anderson) won the 2020 Soffen Memorial Fund Travel Grant. The grant will allow Zhang to present his MS thesis research at the 91st Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) conference in May.

PhD student Kieran Wilson (Advisor: Schaub) won the Best Paper, ASETC, award for his AIAA SciTech 2020 presentation on "An X-Ray Spectroscopic Approach to Remote Space Object Potential Determination: Experimental Results."

BS/MS student Rachel Mamich was named the Fall 2020 CU Engineering Outstanding Graduate for International Engagement.

PhD student MC Gonzalez-Dorbecker (advisor: Nabity) earned 2nd place in the Graduate Student Competition at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research annual meeting for her lightning talk “Modeling crew performance degradation due to radiation exposure in space."

PhD student lvaro Romero Calvo (Advisor: Schaub) has been voted president-elect of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research Student Society.

PhD student Mike Van Akin (Advisor: Anderson) won the Ross McFarland Student Award from the Life Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Branch of the Aerospace Medicine Association.

PhD student Kieran Wilson (Advisor: Schaub) earned the AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environments Best Paper Award for his work, “An X-ray Spectroscopic Approach to Remote Space Object Potential Determination: Experimental Results."

PhD students Adam Christopherson (Advisor: Maute), Luke Peterson (Advisor: Scheeres), and Samantha Sheppard (Advisor: Farnsworth) have earned 2020 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships.

PhD student Evan Tucker (Advisor: Steve Nerem) earned a 2020 NASA FINESST Fellowship for his proposal "Advancing Satellite Laser Ranging Time-Variable Gravity Recovery through the Optimization of Future Satellite Orbits and Ground Station Placement.

PhD student Maria Cols Margenet (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub) received a 2020 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Guidance, Navigation and Control Graduate Award.

Four Smead Aerospace PhD students earned 2020 Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellowships, which recognize women pursuing doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences:

• Anne Bennett (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub)
• Valerie Bernstein (Advisor: Delores Knipp)
• Shaylah Mutschler (Advisor: Penina Axelrad)
• Annika Rollock (Advisor: David Klaus)

Five Smead Aerospace graduate students received 2020 department awards for their contributions to research and teaching:

• Outstanding Graduate Student in Teaching - Jordan Maxwell
• Outstanding Graduate Student in Research - Kieran Wilson
• Outstanding Graduate Student in Service - Carlos Pinedo
• John A. Vise Award #1 - Valerie Bernstein
• John A. Vise Award #2 - Ian Collett

Five Smead Aerospace students earned 2020 NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) fellowships:

• Aaron Allred (Advisors: Alireza Doostan and Kurt Maute)
• Kristen Bruchko (Advisor: Natasha Bosanac)
• Matthew Hardy (Advisor: Jim Nabity)
• Adam Herrmann (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub)
• Jordan Murphy (Advisor: Dan Scheeres)

Six Smead Aerospace students earned 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (NSF GRFP):

• Kristen Bruchko (Advisor: Natasha Bosanac)
• Adam Herrmann (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub)
• Jaylon McGhee (Advisor. John Farnsworth)
• Anna Montgomery (Advisor: Marcus Holzinger)
• Esther Putman (Advisor: Torin Clark)
• Amanda Steckel (Advisor: Xinzhao Chu)

Master's student Alex Liem (Advisor: Jim Nabity) was selected as a member of the 2020 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program, along with two undergraduate students: Megan Jones and Michelle Lin.

PhD student Jacob Kintz (advisor: Torin Clark) earned 1st place in the student competition at the NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop, held January 27-30 in Galveston, Texas.

PhD student Kenshiro Oguri (Advisor: Jay McMahon) won 2nd place in the student competition at the annual AAS Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, held Jan. 30 - Feb. 5 in Breckenridge.

Aviation Week recognized four CU Boulder aerospace undergraduate and graduate students as 2020 "Tomorrow's Engineering Leaders: The 20 Twenties:"

• Valerie Bernstein, aerospace PhD student (Advisor: Delores Knipp)
• Michelle Lin, aerospace and applied math undergraduate junior (Research advisors: Allison Anderson and David Klaus)
• Simon Shuham, aerospace master's, conferred Dec. 2019 (Advisor: Francisco López Jiménez)
• Gautham Viswaroopan, aerospace master's, conferred Dec. 2019 (Advisor: Bob Marshall)

2019

Jordan Dixon (Advisor: Torin Clark) was awarded the 2019 Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) Fellows Scholarship (2nd place), for his AsMA presentation and Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance (AMHP) journal article entitled: "Integration of a Vestibular Model for Disorientation Research Device Motion Algorithm Application”, based upon its "high scientific value, originality, quality and relevance."

PhD student Aly Badran (Advisor: Dave Marshall) earned a best poster award at the 10th International Conference on High Temperature Ceramic Matrix Composites, held in Bordeaux. The title of his poster was “Segmentation of Micro-CT images of SiC-SiC CMCs using Deep Learning.”

PhD student Miles Bengtson (Advisor: HP Schaub) was lead author of “Remote Sensing of Spacecraft Potential at Geosynchronous Orbit using Secondary and Photo Electrons," which earned the 2019 AIAA SciTech forum Atmospheric and Space Environments Best Paper Award.

PhD students Ian Collett (Advisor: Jade Morton) and Kirsten Strandjord (Advisor: Penny Axelrad) each earned 2019 Lockheed Martin Corporation Endowed Graduate Fellowships from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

PhD student Jordan Dixon (Advisor: Torin Clark) won the "Most Innovative Student Research Award" for his paper at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society conference, entitled "A Mathematical Model-based Metric of Spatial Disorientation for Use in Active Countermeasures".

PhD students Ajay Sharma and TJ Rose (Advisor: Francisco Lopez Jimenez) earned the 2019 AIAA Spacecraft Structures Best Paper Award with Lopez Jimenez, Andrew Seamone (CivEngr'19), and Thomas Murphey (MechEngr'01) of Opterus Research and Development Inc. for “Analysis of the Column Bending Test for Bending of High Strain Composites.”

PhD students Clayton Cantrall (Advisor: Tomoko Matsuo) and Ben Wise (Advisor: Jeff Thayer) were each selected as winners in NASA's inaugural Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) competition.

PhD student Ian Collett (advisor: Jade Morton) won a best presentation award at the 2019 Institute of Navigation GNSS+ conference in Miami, FL.

PhD student Hermann Kaptui (Advisor: Jay McMahon) earned a GEM Fellowship.

PhD student Mike Lotto (Advisor: David Klaus) earned the AIAA Neil A. Armstrong Graduate Award

PhD candidate Young-Young Shen (Advisor: Allie Anderson) was selected to receive the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Controls Graduate Award.

Five Smead Aerospace graduate students received department awards for their contributions to research and teaching:

• John A. Vise Award #1: Mike Lotto (Advisor: David Klaus)
• John A. Vise Award #2: Kirsten Strandjord (Advisor: Penina Axelrad)
• Graduate Student Award - Teaching: Joseph Karl Sanchez (Advisor: Natasha Bosanac)
• Graduate Student Award - Research: Benjamin Bercovici (Advisor: Jay McMahon)
• Graduate Student Award - Service: Jordan Maxwell (Advisor: Hanspeter Schaub)

Six graduate students earned 2019 NASA Space and Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF):

• Samuel Albert (Advisor: Bobby Braun)
• Damennick Henry (Advisor: Dan Scheeres)
• Carolina Peña (Advisor: Bob Marshall)
• Thomas Smith (Advisor: Natasha Bosanac)
• Christopher "Jack" Sullivan (Advisor: Natasha Bosanac)
• Mitchell Woolever (Advisor: James Nabity)

PhD students Samuel Fedeler (Advisor: Marcus Holzinger) and Brodie Wallace (Advisor: Scott Palo) earned 2019 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

PhD student Annika Rollock (Advisor: Bobby Braun) was awarded a 2019 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship.

The winners of the 5th Annual Researchpalooza student presentations are:

1. Scott Carnahan, Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation, “Simulating Infrared Vision for Space Robots”

2. Aly Badran, Aerospace Engineering Systems, “Deep Learning CT Image Segmentations of High Temperature Ceramic Matrix Composites”

3. CK Venigalla, Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation, “Multi-Spacecraft Trajectory Coordination Using Reachable Sets”

PhD student Jordan Dixon (Advisor: Torin Clark) earned first place in the student poster competition at the 2019 Human Research Program Investigators Workshop, an annual conference for NASA-funded investigators. This is the second year in a row Dixon was awarded first place in the competition.

BS/MS student Ryan Blay (Advisor: Dennis Akos) and PhD student Mark Moretto (Advisor: Jay McMahon) have been announced as 2019 recipients of the Aviation Week Network “Tomorrow’s Technology Leaders: The 20 Twenties" honors. The program recognizes students earning STEM degrees who are nominated by their universities on the basis of academic performance, civic contribution and research or design projects.

2018

PhD student Kimia Seyedmadani (Advisor: Torin Clark) received an Outstanding Achievement Award as a graduate intern at NASA Johnson Space Center in recognition of "outstanding performance and lasting contributions as a Fall 2018 Intern."

PhD student Jamie Voros (Advisor: Torin Clark) received the 2019-2020 Sheryl R. Young Memorial Scholarship. The program recognizes a CU graduate student in the sciences and is awarded in memory of Young, who received her PhD in Psychology from CU in 1984. An assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, she was an internationally respected computer scientist and supporter of women’s causes in the sciences.

PhD student Miles Bengston (advisor: H. Schaub) received the 2019 Dean Olmstead Memorial Scholarship from the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Space & Satellite Professionals International.

BS/MS student Alan Sanchez is the University of Colorado 2018 Forever Buffs Student Award Winner. The distinction honors students who demonstrate the Forever Buffs tenets of connecting, contributing and celebrating their CU pride through extraordinary service to the university.

PhD Students Katya Arquilla and Heather Hava received the Women Forward in Technology Scholarship. This is Katya’s second year winning this scholarship.

PhD student Jordan Maxwell (advisor: H. Schaub) was awarded the Dr. Charles Stein Outstanding Scholar Award for his work at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The following eight aerospace students earned 2018 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awards:

PhD students Emily Matula and Joseph Hughes received 2018 John A. Vise Awards. The honor is presented annually to two CU Boulder aerospace PhD students who have demonstrated excellence in academics and research, and who have contributed community service.

PhD student Tobias Niederwieser (advisor: D. Klaus) earned the AIAA Orville and Wilbur Wright Award.

PhD student Luke Bury (advisor: J. McMahon) was one of only 20 recipients of the 2018 "20 Twenties" award from Aviation week and AIAA, which recognize 20 students every year who are nominated by their universities on the basis of their academic performance, civic contribution and research or design project."

Hannah Holt (advisor: J. Thayer) was awarded first prize in the NSF CEDAR meeting poster competition. Her paper on “Equatorial Thermosphere Anomaly and Related Helium Density Signatures” addresses how helium behavior at low earth orbit affects gas mass density and satellite drag.

Incoming student Ethan Burnett (advisor: H. Schaub) earned an NDSEG award.

PhD Student Mary Bastawrous (advisor: M. Hussein) received an Amelia Earhart fellowship.

PhD candidate Michael Werner (advisor: B. Braun) won Best Student Presentation at the 2018 International Planetary Probe Workshop.

PhD Student Andrew Harris (advisor: H. Schaub) won the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Graduate Award.

PhD Student Thibaud Teil (advisor: H. Schaub) received the best paper award for his submission to RPI Workshop on Image-Based Modeling and Navigation for Space Applications.

PhD candidate Tobias Niederwieser (advisor: D. Klaus) is the recipient of the AIAA Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award.

PhD candidate Emily Matula (advisor: J. Nabity) is the recipient of the AIAA Neil Armstrong Graduate Award.

PhD student Carlos Deccia (advisor: S. Nerem) has been awarded a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship for his proposal entitled “Design of a Constellation of GRACE-type Small Satellites to Improve Temporal and Spatial Resolution of Satellite Gravity Estimates.”

PhD students John Martin and Ethan Burnett (advisor: H. Schaub) received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.

PhD students Anne Bennett (advisor: H. Schaub), Luke Bury and Mark Moretto (advisor: J. McMahon) were each awarded NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships.

PhD student MaryCarmen Gonzalez-Dorbecker (advisor: J. Nabity) received a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) for a proposal entitled "Modeling human performance degradation from radiation exposure and physiological responses to spaceflight during long duration missions.”

The following students each earned Draper Fellowships, which recognize outstanding individuals pursuing advanced degrees in engineering and the sciences:

• Marielle Pellegrino (advisor: D. Scheeres)
• Evan Roelke (advisor: B. Braun)
• Jonathan Manni (advisors: J. McMahon and N. Ahmed)
• Kirsten Strandjord (advisor: P. Axelrad)
• Katya Arquilla (advisor: A. Anderson)
• Jordan Dixon (advisor: T. Clark)

'CU Skunks' of Aerospace received a grant from the Engineering Excellence Fund (EEF) to compete in NASA's Digital Twin Challenge 2018. The team is made up of graduate & undergraduate students.

2017

Markus Geiss received the Department Graduate Award for Professional Service.

Jordan Dixon and Margaret Rybak received the Department Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.

Dimitri Krattiger and Nicola Baresi earned the Department Graduate Research Award.

Tyler Mixa was recognized with an Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the May 2017 Japan Geosciences Union / American Geophysical Union Joint Meeting, held in Tokyo.

Tyler Mixa received an Outstanding Student Poster and Presenting Interactive Content Award at the April 2017 European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna.

Michael DeLuca, Katherine Glasheen, and Shaylah Mutschler each individually earned a 2017 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.

PhD students Matthieu Talpe and Romik Khajehtourian received 2017 John A. Vise Awards. The honor is presented annually to two CU Boulder aerospace PhD students who have demonstrated excellence in academics and research, and who have contributed community service.

Chandrakanth (CK) Venigalla, AES PhD student, was awarded a National Space Technology Research Fellowship. (mentor: Dan Scheeres)

2016

Tyler Mixa earned an Outstanding Student Paper Award at the American Geophysical Union 2016 fall meeting in San Francisco.

Federico Gasperini, PhD student, received the Young Scientist Award for 2017 from the IAGA. (advisor: J. Forbes)

Nicola Baresi, PhD student, has been awarded a John V. Breakwell award to attend the 27th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting. (advisor: D. Scheeres)

Joseph Hughes, PhD student, has been awarded a John V Breakwell award to attend the 27th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting. (advisor: H. Schaub)

Hossein Honarvar, PhD student, has been selected as the winner of the Teets Family Endowed Doctoral Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to a PhD student from across the college in all areas covering “Micro/Nano Systems in Engineering and Life Sciences.”  It is awarded once every one and a half years. (advisor: M. Hussein)

Scott Sheahan, PhD student, was selected as one of three winners of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Drone World Expo (DWE) Innovative Drone Exploration and Application (IDEA) Competition. (advisor: E. Frew)

Dr. Ryan McGranaghan (Aero, PhD 2016) has been asked to brief the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, Committee on Solar and Space Physics (CSSP) on his PhD work on Ionospheric Data Assimilation, and extensions thereto. (advisor: D. Knipp)

Margaret Rybak, PhD student, received a NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Graduate Fellowship. (advisor: P. Axelrad)

Markus Geiss, PhD student, received the AIAA 2016 John Leland Atwood Graduate Award (advisor: K. Maute)

Jordan Holquist (PhD student) received the first place award in the student poster competition held at the International Conference on Environmental Systems in Vienna, Austria.  His poster is titled “Ionic Liquids Selection and Initial Test Results for  Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction.” (advisor: D. Klaus)

Michael DeLuca (PhD student) was awarded a John Mather Nobel Scholarship by the National Space Grant Foundation, Inc. (advisor: Z. Sternovsky)

Vu Nguyen (PhD student) won the top student poster award in the MLT section of the CEDAR conference for his poster, “Interannual Variability of Secondary Waves Arising from QTDW-DW1 Interaction.” (advisor: S. Palo)

Ryan McGranaghan (PhD student) took the top student poster in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere competition (#1 of 55 posters) at the International Beacon Satellite Symposium in Trieste, Italy.  The title of his poster: “Reconstruction of three-dimensional auroral ionospheric conductivities via an assimilative technique.” (advisor: D. Knipp)

Patrick Kenneally (PhD student) won the AIAA Guidance Navigation and Control Award (advisor: H. Schaub)

Trevor Bennett (PhD student) won the AIAA Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award (advisor: H. Schaub)

Maria Del Mar Cols Margenet (PhD student) won the Balsells Fellowship. (advisor: H. Schaub)

Alice Bradley (PhD student) was selected to participate in the MIT-Stanford Women in Aerospace Symposium this year. She will receive travel reimbursement, and the opportunity to present a poster and a talk at MIT.  (advisor: S. Palo)

Conor Benson (PhD student) received a 2016 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) award for his proposal, “Long-Term Rotational Dynamics of Earth-Orbiting Satellites.” (advisor: D. Scheeres)

Kristin Nichols (PhD student) received a 2016 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) award for her proposal, “Mobility in the Small Body Environment: Close Proximity Landing and Surface Dynamics.” (advisor: D. Scheeres) 

Tobias Niederwieser (PhD student) was selected to participate in the Space Studies Program of the International Space University (ISU). The 8 week program will be conducted in Haifa, Israel. He received scholarships to attend the ISU summer program from the European Space Agency, the Association of Austrian Space Industries, and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency. (advisor: D. Klaus)

Ann Dietrich (PhD student) was selected to participate in the MIT-Stanford Women in Aerospace Symposium this year. She will receive travel reimbursement, and the opportunity to present a poster and a talk at MIT.  (advisor: J. McMahon)

Samantha Rieger (PhD student) was selected to participate in the MIT-Stanford Women in Aerospace Symposium this year. She will receive travel reimbursement, and the opportunity to present a poster and a talk at MIT.  (advisor: D. Scheeres)

Daniel Case (PhD student) received a 2016 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) award for his proposal titled, “Passive Radiation Shielding: Integrating Multilayer and Multipurpose Materials into Space Habitat Design.” (advisor: J. Nabity)

Michael Lotto (PhD student) received a 2016 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) award for his proposal titled, “Assessing the Feasibility of Using Co-electrolysis with Task-specific Ionic Liquids to Produce Methane and Oxygen for Martian In-situ Resource Utlization.” (advisor: D. Klaus)

Heather Hava (MS and PhD student) Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, Graduate Winner. Read the article in the Denver Post.  (advisor: D. Klaus, MS and N. Correll, PhD)

Ann Dietrich, (PhD student) was awarded an Amelia Earhart Fellowship for the 2016-2017 academic year. This is a one-time, $10k fellowship. (advisor: J. McMahon)

Ryan McGranaghan, PhD, has been awarded a NASA Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Ryan will perform his post doctoral work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the Ionospheric and Atmospheric Remote Sensing Group with Dr. Anthony Mannucci. (Aero, 2016; advisor: D. Knipp)

Ann Dietrich received Second Place in the student paper competition at the 2016 AAS GN&C Conference in Breckenridge. Her paper is titled, “Error Sensitivites for Flash LIDAR Based Relative Navigation Around Small Bodies.” (advisor: J. McMahon)

PhD students Trevor Bennett and Alice Bradley received 2016 John A. Vise Awards. The honor is presented annually to two CU Boulder aerospace PhD students who have demonstrated excellence in academics and research, and who have contributed community service.

Trevor Bennett (advisor: H. Schaub), Thomas Green (advisor: J. Nabity), and Markus Geiss (advisor: K. Maute) are three of Aviation Week’s 20 Twenties for 2016

2015

Hong Zhao won Outstanding Student Paper Award in Magnetospheric at the 2015 Fall AGU (advisor: X. Li)

Vu Nguyen (PhD student) received an Outstanding Student Poster Award for his poster, “Addressing the Question of Large Scale Nonlinera Wave Coupling in the Space-Atmosphere Interaction Region” at the Fall 2015 AGU Meeting. Only the top 3-5% of all student posters receive this designation (advisor: S. Palo)

Ryan McGranaghan (PhD student) received an Outstanding Student Poster Award from the Fall 2015 AGU Meeting. His poster was entitled, Reconstruction of three-dimensional auroral ionospheric conductivities via an assimilative technique (advisor: D. Knipp)

Romik Khajehtourian (PhD student) has been selected by Mensa Education & Research Foundation to receive the David Mann Scholarship (advisor: M. Hussein)

Weichun Fong (PhD student) won 1st place in the Mesosophere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) Student Poster competition at the CEDAR conference (advisor: X. Chu)

Vu Nguyen (PhD student) won honorable mention in the MLT poster competition (advisor: S. Palo)

Vicki Hsu (PhD student) won 1st place in the Ionesphere and Thermosphere (IT) Student Poster competition at the CEDAR conference (advisor: J. Thayer)

Ryan McGranaghan (PhD student) is one of 25 students (national and international) invited to the National Center for Atmospheric Research Advanced Studies Program Summer Colloquium (advisor: D. Knipp)

Nicola Baresi (PhD student) won best student paper award at the 8th International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Flying (advisor: D. Scheeres)

Ryan Hardy (PhD student) won a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (advisor: S. Nerem)

Matthieu Talpe (PhD student) received a Fulbright grant to study at the Technical Univeristy of Munich (TUM) from September 2015 until July 2016. He also won a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (advisor: S. Nerem)

Clémence Bacquet (PhD student) has been selected by Zonta International to receive an Amelia Earhart Fellowship. Her work investigates the interplay between internal resonances and dissipation in structural materials (advisor: M. Hussein)

Emily Matula (PhD student) has been selected for a 2015 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship for her research project entitled "Characterizing Biological Closed-Loop Life Support Systems for Thermal Control and Revitalization of Spacecraft Cabin Environments" (advisor: J. Nabity)

Steve McGuire (PhD student) awarded a 2015 Space Technology Research Fellowship for his project titled "Augmented Reality Telepresence for Robotic Exploration" (advisor: G. Sibley - CS)

Ethan Culler (PhD student) received an honorable mention for the 2015 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and was just offered a three-year fellowship from the 2015 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Program (advisor: J. Farnsworth)

JoAnna Fulton (PhD student) won both an NSF graduate fellowship and an NDSEG award (advisor: H. Schaub)

Alice Bradley (PhD student) selected as the first recipient of the Strauch Fellowship (advisor: S. Palo)

Holly Borowski (PhD student), one of 85 students selected to receive $15,000 Scholar Award from the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) (advisor: E. Frew)

McArthur Jones and Jason Leonard are the 2015 Vise Award recipients (advisors: J. Forbes and G. Born)

Jonathan Anthony, Charles Bretchtel, Kaitlin McIntosh, Lauren McManus, Matthew Milanese, and William Tandy, otherwise known as team “Delphi: A Lunar Architecture to Enable Exploration, Research, and Commercial Development of Space beyond LEO,” were selected to compete in the 2015 RASC-AL Forum later this year in Florida. (advisor: D. Klaus)

Collin Bezrouk (PhD student) won a three-year DoD NDSEG Fellowship (advisor: J. Parker)

Weichun Fong (PhD student) 2nd place in MLT poster competition at CEDAR Workshop (advisor: X. Chu)

Ryan McGranaghan (PhD student) 2nd place in IT poster competition at CEDAR Workshop (advisor: D. Knipp)

2014

Alice Bradley (PhD student) 2014 NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow (NESSF) (advisor: S. Palo)

Alan Smith (PhD student) received a Chateaubriand Fellowship to work at CNES (advisor: J. Parker)

Elise Kowalski (MS student) received a Jeppesen Scholarship for 2014-2015 to study at the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany (advisor: D. Klaus)

Christine Fanchiang (PhD student) was one of two students sponsored by the Boulder, Colorado chapter of P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization) to receive a P.E.O. Scholar Award (advisor: D. Klaus)

Luis Zea (PhD student) received a Fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to conduct research at the German Aerospace Agency (DLR) (advisor: D. Klaus)

Jonathan Aziz (PhD student) received a 2014 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (advisor: G. Born)

Trevor Bennett (PhD student) received an NSF Fellowship (advisor: HP Schaub)

Kiichiro DeLuca (PhD student) received an NSF Fellowship (advisor: D. Scheeres)

Andrew Dahir (MS student) received an NSF Fellowship (advisor: D. Akos)

Holly Borowski (PhD Candidate) received a Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship for the 2014-15 academic year.

Lauren Blum (PhD Candidate) invited to MIT’s 2014 Women in Aerospace Symposium on April 7-8, 2014 (advisor: X. Li)

Hong Zhao (PhD candidate) selected for admission to the 4th Los Alamos Space Weather Summer School, and also received Los Alamos National Laboratory Vela Fellowship (advisor: X. Li)

Ryan McGranaghan (PhD Student Advised by Dr. Knipp) has been accepted to the Los Alamos Space Weather Summer School for summer of 2014.

Juliana Feldhacker (PhD Student Advised by Dr. Born) and McArthur Jones, Jr. (PhD Student Advised by Dr. Forbes) are winners of the 2014 AES Graduate Student Service Award.

Mike Lotto, PhD Student, Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Scholarship recipient (2014) (advisor: D. Klaus)

Gauravdev Soin, MS student, Best Paper Award for Hyperion from AIAA Design Engineering Committee (2014) (advisor: J. Koster)

Xianjing Liu, PhD Student, Outstanding Student Paper Award (OSPA) for her presentation at the Fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting entitled: Composition Change and Its Effect on Mass Density Response During a Geomagnetic Storm (2014) (advisor: J. Thayer)

Lauren Blum, PhD candidate, John A. Vise Graduate Student Excellence Award (2014) (advisor: X. Li)

Paul Anderson, PhD candidate, John A. Vise Graduate Student Excellence Award (2014) (advisor: H. Schaub)

Seven of the twenty students selected by Aviation Week for recognition as “Tomorrow’s Engineering Leaders: The Twenty20s” are in our AES department! 

1 Paul Anderson – PhD candidate
2 Brad Cheetham – PhD candidate
3 Jake Gamsky – PhD candidate
4 Erin Griggs – PhD candidate
5 Kirstyn Johnson – BS/MS candidate
6 Mike Lotto – BS candidate
7 Dan Lubey – PhD candidate

 Paul Anderson (advisor: HP Schaub)) also selected to receive the John V. Breakwell student travel award for the 2014 Space Flight Mechanics Meeting to be held in Santa Fe, NM in January 2014. Paul will receive $1,000 in support of his travel to present the paper he is co-authoring with Prof. Schaub, “Characterizing localized debris congestion in the geosynchronous orbit regime.” 

2013

Christine Fanchiang, AES PhD student (2013) (advisor: David Klaus), Harriet G. Jenkins Graduate Fellowship from NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP)

Paul Anderson, PhD candidate, NSF and NDSEG graduate fellowships (2013-2019) (advisor: H. Schaub)

Marco Balducci, PhD candidate, advised a team of high school students who won the NASA Real World and In World contest. He was the only advisor for the In World part. The team designed a star shade for the James Webb telescope. (Balducci’s advisor: G. Born)

Payam Banazadeh, NSF fellowship deferred candidate for one year to work at JPL (2013) (advisor: J. Parker)

Collin Bezrouk, PhD candidate, NDSEG Fellowship (2013) (advisor: J. Parker)

Cheryl Blomberg, MS candidate, Young Professional Liaison to the AIAA Board of Directors (2013-2015) (advisor: R. Starkey)

Daniel Bryant, PhD candidate, DoD SMART Fellowship (advisor: Brandon Jones)

Matthew Cannella, MS 2013, NASA travel scholarship to attend 64thInternational Astronautical Congress in Beijing, China in Sept 2014 to present paper based on his work on a Pistonless Rocket Fuel Pump (advisor: R. Starkey)

2012

Jennifer Dowling, PhD candidate, NSF Fellowship (2012) (advisor: J. Parker)

Michael Frazier, PhD candidate, John A. Vise Graduate Student Excellence Award (2013) (advisor: M. Hussein)

Jason Leonard, PhD candidate, NASA NSTR Fellowship (2013) (advisor: G. Born)

Mike Lotto, PhD candidate, Goldwater Scholarship (2013) (advisor: D. Klaus)

Ryan McGranaghan, PhD candidate, NSF Fellowship (2013) (advisor: D. Knipp)

Lucas Miller, MS Candidate, APS TA Award for Excellence in Teaching

Waqas Qazi, PhD candidate, Muneeb Kamal International Student of the Year (2012); ATOC CU-Boulder Best Poster, Oceanography (2012); (advisor: W. Emery)

Michael Skeen, BS/MS 2013, travel scholarship to present paper at 10thInternational Planetary Probe Workshop in San Jose, CA (advisor: R. Starkey)

Laura Stiles, PhD candidate, John A. Vise Graduate Student Excellence Award (2013) (advisor: H. Schaub)

Sibylle Walter, PhD candidate, Amelia Earhart Fellowship (2013); has 3 year NASA ARMD Fellowship so cannot accept Earhart (advisor: R. Starkey)

Zhibin Yu, PhD candidate, 1stprize, CEDAR Graduate Poster Competition (2013) (advisor: X. Chu) note: since 2010, AES students have won 1stprize!

Luis Zea (PhD candidate), Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award, AIAA Foundation Graduate Student Awards (2013) (advisor: D. Klaus)

Hyperion Green Aircraft, “Best Paper Award,” AIAA Design Engineering Technical Committee (2013).  Second award in a row for this project; third if we include the hyprid propulsion.  (Advisor: J. Koster)

CU-Boulder’s Design, Build, Fly (DBF) team took an impressive 5thplace at the 2012/2013 AIAA DBF international competition in Tucson, AZ. (Advisors: B. Argrow, D. Gerren) 

The NASA X-Hab Team was one of the winners in the eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge for their proposal, “Plant Anywhere: Plants Growing in Free Habitat Space.” Funding is contingent upon a successful contract between CU-Boulder and the National Space Grant Foundation (2013) (Advisor: J. Tanner).

CU’s team won “1st place—graduates” and “Best Advanced Concepts” at the NASA RASC-AL competition. This work was based on a class project with Dave Klaus, and Joe Tanner’s X-Hab project.

Quintin Schiller, Ph.D. candidate, was awarded the best student tutorial at the June 2012 Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) workshop held in Snowmass, Colorado. Advisor: Xinlin Li

Lauren Blum and Quintin Schiller (advisor: Xinlin Li) won third place (and Conference held on 15 August in Logan, UT, for their paper, "Characterization and Testing of an Energetic Particle Telescope for a CubeSat Platform." The CubeSat was a joint project between LASP and Aero, led by Xinlin Li and Scott Palo. Originally scheduled for launch on 2 August, the CubeSat is rescheduled to launch in early September. This is the third time that students who worked on the CubeSat project won awards in this particular prestigious competition. Two years ago, David Gerhardt (advisor: Scott Palo) was awarded second place, while Quintin Schiller and Abhishek Mahendrakumar (advisor: Xinlin Li) were awarded third place.

We are delighted to announce that our students, along with some international collaborators, won awards in FL last week at the 2012 NASA/NIA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) design competition.

1st Place, University of Colorado at Boulder -- Extraterrestrial Outpost (ExO): Design and Implementation of a Long-Term, Sustainable Lunar Habitat
Team members: Stuart Tozer, Christine Fanchiang, Nicholas Zinner, Zachary Grunder, Joshua Imobersteg, Felix Bidner and Lee Jasper

2nd Place, University of Colorado, Delft University of Technology & University of Stuttgart, Exploration of Near Earth Asteroids -- A Revolutionary Mission Architecture
CU Boulder team members: Simon Tardivel and Yu Takahashi.  Delft team members: Jon Herman (incoming CU Phd student), Jon Reijneveld, Katie Dunlop. Stuttgart team member: Aline Zimmer.

Paul Anderson (PhD advisor HP Schaub) has been awarded the AIAA Foundation Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award.

Mack Jones (PhD advisor Jeff Forbes) has been awarded a 3-year Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship.

AES graduate student Lauren Blum (advisor: Xinlin Li) has been selected for a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) for the 2012/2013 academic year.

Dan Lubey and David Surovik (advised by Dan Scheeres), and Daan Stevenson (advised by HP Schaub) have received NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships.