2019 NASA Engineering and Safety Center Honor Awards

NESC Directors Award

Honors individuals for defending a technical position that conflicts with a Program or Organization’s initial or prevailing engineering perspectives and for taking personal initiative to foster clear and open communication and resolve controversial issues.

Thomas J. Horvath

In recognition of the persistence and dedication that have kept the WB-57 Remote Imaging Project viable, leading to its successful application to the AA-2 Mission

Richard J. Schwartz

In recognition of the persistence and dedication that have kept the WB-57 Remote Imaging Project viable, leading to its successful application to the AA-2 Mission

NESC Leadership Award

Honors individuals for sustained leadership excellence demonstrated by establishing a vision, developing and managing a plan, and building consensus to proactively resolve conflicts and achieve results.

John D. Albright

In recognition of outstanding technical leadership in support of the Orion Pressure Control Assembly Anomaly Resolution Team

Amri I. Hernandez-Pellerano

In recognition of outstanding leadership in support of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s assessment of electrical arcing risk to crew from extra vehicular activity hot mate and demate operations

Kristopher J. Mcdougal

In recognition of outstanding technical leadership in support of the Orion Pressure Control Assembly Anomaly Resolution Team

Robert Navarro

In recognition of outstanding project management in support of the Pilot Breathing Assessment at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center

NESC Engineering Excellence Award

Honors individuals for making significant engineering contributions, developing innovative approaches, and ensuring appropriate levels of engineering rigor are applied to the resolution of technical issues in support of the NESC mission.

Pavel F. Babuska

In recognition of engineering excellence in assessing the integrity of the critical bond of Avcoat material on the Orion heatshield

Eric A. Binter

In recognition of engineering excellence in the field of dynamic systems analysis improving NASA’s understanding of mission critical commercial crew flight hardware

Paul A. Blelloch

In recognition of engineering excellence and innovative implementation of an hybrid parametric variation approach for addressing model uncertainty at the component level and propagating it to system-level results

James T. Burns

In recognition of engineering excellence for test design and data interpretation of environmentally assisted cracking of metals in hypergolic propellants

Anthony D. Carden

In recognition of engineering excellence for innovative system design and test execution in the acquisition of jettison data in support of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s Ascent Cover Assessment

Thomas K. Evans

In recognition of engineering excellence in the support of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s SpaceX Autonomous Flight Termination System and Boeing Smart Initiator Assessment providing critical insight into the flight termination system controller functional logic and the smart initiator circuit architecture

Kevin M. Hall

In recognition of engineering excellence as the analysis lead in support of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s Pilot Breathing Assessment Team

Karl D. Heiman

In recognition of engineering excellence in support of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s Ascent Cover Assessment Team

Reggie T. Kidd

In recognition of engineering excellence in the development and design of the Aerodynamic Buffet Flight Test vehicle

Daniel C. Kammer

In recognition of engineering excellence and innovative implementation of an hybrid parametric variation approach for addressing model uncertainty at the component level and propagating it to system-level results

William P. Leser

In recognition of engineering excellence for model development, design, and testing of materials for pressure vessel applications

Charles J. Moore, Jr.

In recognition of engineering excellence to the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s Ascent Cover Assessment in the field of pyrotechnic systems enabling the identification and understanding of operational risks

Jeffrey P. Norris

In recognition of engineering excellence for fabrication and testing support for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project

David Soto

In recognition of engineering excellence in support of the SpaceX Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) Software Source Code Assessment, the Falcon Stage 1, and Stage 2 AFTS architecture analysis

William G. Tilson

In recognition of engineering excellence in the development and execution of custom material test methods supporting NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s assessments in fatigue and fracture mechanics

Phillip J. Wellner

In recognition of engineering excellence and dedication as the lead aircrew life support specialist for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center’s Pilot Breathing Assessment

NESC Administrative Excellence Award

Honors individual accomplishments that contributed substantially to support the NESC mission.

Kylene N. Kramer

In recognition for outstanding project coordinator support for the F/A-18 and E/A-18 Fleet Physiological Episodes Assessment and the Pilot Breathing Assessment

Sandra J. Riley

In recognition of exceptional administrative support to the NASA Engineering and Safety Center Integration Office

NESC Group Achievement Award

Honors a team of employees comprised of government and non-government personnel.  The award is in recognition of outstanding accomplishment through the coordination of individual efforts that have contributed substantially to the success of the NESC mission.

Development Flight Instrumentation System Test and Analysis Assessment Team

In recognition of exceptional innovation and implementation in the development of a complete Artemis-1 system development flight instrumentation system analysis to assess expected flight behavior

(award accepted by Andrew Doan on behalf of the team)

Improved Model Correlation and Identification of Non-Linear Joints Applicable to the MPCV Team

In recognition of exceptional technical achievement in improving model correlation and identification of non-linear joints in the European Space Agency structural test article and identification of application methods for the multi-purpose crew vehicle tests

(award accepted by Brent Erickson on behalf of the team)

Wire and Wire Bundle Thermal Test and Analysis Team

In recognition of outstanding contributions in the development of a test apparatus, testing approach, and analytical tools to determine current carrying capacity of wires and wire bundles for aerospace vehicles

(award accepted by Elham Maghsoudi on behalf of the team)