• Chief Master Sgt. Stanley C. Cadell, AFMC command chief
• Chief Master Sgt. Troie Croft, AFLCMC command chief
• Brig. Gen. (Dr.) James Dienst, commander, AFRL’s 711th Human Performance Wing
• Brig. Gen. Ryan Britton, director, AFLCMC Presidential & Executive Airlift Directorate
• Brig. Gen. Brian Bruckbauer, director, Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate
• Col. Paul Burger, commander, 88th Mission Support Group
• Col. Theresa Goodman, commander, United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine
• Dr. Michael Gregg, director, AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate
• Capt. Nimfa Teneza-Mora, commander, Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton
Awards/Recognition
• Senior Master Sgt. James F. Hoy was presented with the Bronze Star Medal, 1st oak leaf cluster, Jan. 11. Hoy was recognized for his meritorious achievement as superintendent, Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States from June 2017 to May 2018.
• Dr. Sheldon (Lee) Semiatin, AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and is only one of a handful of AFRL alumni ever elected.
• AFRL’s Automatic Integrated Collison Avoidance System team, along with Lockheed Martin and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, were awarded the 2019 Aviation Week Laureate Award for safety in the defense category March 14.
• Dr. Adam Pilchak, AFRL, received Jaap Schijve award, presented by The Netherlands Aerospace Centre NLR and Delft University of Technology to promote the disciplines of fatigue and damage tolerance for aerospace applications. The award is based on technical contributions to the advancement of the field of aeronautical fatigue.
• The 88th Medical Group’s Maternal Child Care Inpatient Flight received accolades for its outstanding care and services for parents and their new bundles of joy. On top of being awarded the Maternity Care Best Practice, Squadron Large Team of the Quarter and the Group Aim High award, the MCCIF was also recognized as the Most Breastfeeding Supportive Hospital Unit by the Ohio Lactation Consultant Association for outstanding work in promoting and supporting breastfeeding. In addition, satisfaction surveys have shown that year to date, 100 percent of the patients at the MCCIF would recommend the facility to family and friends.
• The Cost Analysis team for AFLCMC’s Rapid Sustainment Office has been named the winner of the Greater Dayton Chapter of International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association’s 2019 Team Achievement Award. The team was honored for their work in quickly collecting data, building cost estimates, comparative analyses, and identifying the applicable funding appropriations to support the RSO’s fiscal year 2021 program objective memorandum submittal.
• Dr. Carl Tilmann, principal scientist, AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate, Aerospace Vehicles Division, was named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Designation as an ASME fellow recognizes “exceptional engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.” The title of fellow has been awarded to only about 2 percent of more than 130,000 ASME members.
• Dr. Meir Pachter was selected as AFIT’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management’s newest distinguished professor. This distinction is reserved for individuals who have displayed exceptional, lifelong performance and achievement as a graduate school faculty member. Pachter is an internationally recognized expert in the Air Force mission-critical area of intelligent autonomous control and navigation of aerospace systems with a current focus on unmanned aerial vehicles and air-to-air operations. He has published more than 100 refereed journal articles and has received more than $2.3 million in research funding, primarily from AFRL.
• AFIT was redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security through academic year 2024. AFIT is one of eight Ohio colleges and universities to earn this distinction, joining a group of more than 275 schools across the country. To obtain the re-designation, AFIT demonstrated continued cyber defense efforts in research initiatives by faculty and students, publications, Ph.D. student production and research funding.
• Segrid Harris was selected by Career Communications Group Inc. to receive the Managerial Leadership in Government Award at the 24th Annual Women of Color STEM Conference. Harris is the Materials Integrity branch chief, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, AFRL. The branch provides materials/processing consultation services to numerous product centers, air logistics complexes and operational commands.
• Dr. James Joo, Capt. Dharyl Monsalud and Dr. Vikas Varshney of AFRL were recognized by the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers in 2019:
** Joo, Advanced Structural Concepts team lead, won the Engineer/Scientist of the Year award
** Monsalud, deputy chief of the Combustion Devices Branch, received the Technical/Research/Business Achievement award
** Varshney, of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, won the award for professional achievement.
• Dr. Daniel Garmann, AFRL’s Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate, was honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at a July 25 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Garmann, a senior research aerospace engineer, is an expert in the modeling, simulation and behavior of air flows and their effect on the control and performance of aircraft. His work impacts vehicles from across the spectrum, from unmanned aircraft systems, to fighter jets, to hypersonic platforms.
• AFRL had winners in the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation Great Minds in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Heroes Award for 2019. GMiS is a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping America technologically strong by promoting STEM careers, especially in underserved communities.
• Dr. Hilmar Koerner, research team lead in AFRL’s Structural Materials Division, was chosen as a 2019 fellow of the American Ceramic Society for his exceptional contributions and accomplishments in the science and technology community.
• Dr. Benji Maruyama and Dr. John Russell, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, were named AFRL fellows for 2019. Maruyama was nominated in the research achievement category. He is a principal materials research engineer and leader of the Flexible Materials and Processes Research Team in the Functional Materials Division.
Russell was nominated in the program and organizational leadership category. He is the chief engineer of the Manufacturing and Industrial Technologies Division. In this role, he leads the division’s engagement with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center to identify critical manufacturing needs.
• A team of AFRL scientists and engineers was selected for a 2019 Defense Innovation Award for its portable door lock technology, a set of solutions designed to secure or barricade most door styles in the event of an active shooter situation.
• The Memphis Belle, one of the most recognizable symbols of World War II, was named by the U.S. Air Force History and Museums Program as a recipient of the 2019 Air Force Heritage Award for its restoration by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
Two teams from AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate were recognized with the 2020 Aviation Week Network Laureate Award in the category of Defense:
• Medium Scale Critical Components team has been honored in the Propulsion subcategory. Comprising researchers and technicians from the AFRL Aerospace Systems Directorate, Arnold Engineering Development Complex, and Northrop Grumman Corp., the team recently set a record for the highest thrust produced by an air-breathing hypersonic engine in U.S. Air Force history.
• The Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie team was honored in the Technology and Innovation subcategory. The team, which partners AFRL and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc., proved that low cost can be achieved while maintaining high performance. The XQ-58A is the pathfinder for the attritable class of aircraft that provides the warfighter the capability to project air power with mass, complexity and unpredictability.
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