The Aerospace Corporation honored nine employees during its 35th annual President’s and Trustees’ Distinguished Achievement Awards ceremony on Sep. 18, 2014. Robert Walker, board of trustees member and chair of the awards subcommittee, and Dr. Wanda Austin, president and CEO for the corporation, presided over the ceremony.
Enold Pierre-Louis was honored with the 2014 Trustees’ Distinguished Achievement Award for developing an integrated technique combining stress and probabilistic analyses to resolve numerous launch-critical issues. He is a senior project leader for Environments, Test, and Assessment Department, Engineering and Technology Group. Pierre-Louis developed an integrated analysis technique used on numerous programs to resolve flight-critical issues.
The first group winner of the President’s Achievement Award comprised: Dr. Steven Beck, distinguished scientist, Electronics and Photonics Laboratory; Henry Montes, senior technical staff, Photonics Technology Department; and Michael Williams, technical staff, Photonics Technology Department. This team was honored for sustaining contributions to the Space Based Infrared System by developing and helping deploy a number of mobile laser beacon systems, which have been critical to the early orbit testing of all U.S. overhead persistent infrared sensors launched and in orbit.
The second group honored with the President’s Achievement Award included: Dr. Russel Benson, systems director, GEOINT Development Office, National Systems Group; Alison Kremer, project engineer, International Space Systems, Systems Planning, Engineering, and Quality; and Dr. Ashley Williams, senior technical staff, Control Analysis Department, ETG. This team was awarded for their application of innovative controls analysis to diagnose and mitigate issues on a critical national program.
The final President’s Achievement Award went to James Gin, systems director, Aerospace Western Test Range, Systems Engineering, Space Systems Group, and Chafic Hammoud, systems director, Targets and Interceptor, Systems Planning, Engineering, and Quality for their exceptional leadership in mitigating critical path risks to the first Ballistic Missile Defense System operational flight test. Their support to the Missile Defense Agency has relied heavily upon the breadth of Aerospace expertise in mission assurance for launch vehicles. Gin’s and Hammoud’s efforts saved MDA over three months of scheduling time, millions of dollars in costs, and ensured crew safety.
The Aerospace Corporation is a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center and has almost 3,500 employees. It provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil, and commercial customers to assure space mission success. The Aerospace Corporation is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., with multiple locations across the United States.
Contact Jessica Brown, 310-336-1195 or jessica.a.brown@aero.org
