Congratulations to AAE Assistant Professor, Karen Marais, for receiving the Louis Stokes Alliance for minority Participation-Indiana at Purdue Outstanding Mentor Award.

William H. Gerstenmaier, a Purdue graduate, has been appointed as Associate Administrator, Human Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate.

Thomas Feldman, a Purdue University graduate student in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has received a 2011 Liquid Propulsion Student Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Liquid Propulsion Technical Committee.

Brian Pomeroy, a graduate student in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has received the AIAA Martin Summerfield Propellants and Combustion Graduate Award.

Yi Cao, a PhD candidate, has been selected as a recipient of a research stipend as part of the Graduate Research Award Program on Public-Sector Aviation Issues.

Don Fry, a PhD candidate, won the Best Paper Award at the 6th IEEE International Conference on System-of-Systems Engineering, held June 27-30, 2011 in Albuquerque, NM.

The award is to inspire and recognize innovative post doctorate level research that has the potential to produce major improvements in advancing the practice of systems engineering and systems thinking.

Student teams from the Spring 2011 AAE 451 Aircraft Design course taught by Professor Crossley had the option of submitting a report from their work to NASA's Environmentally Responsible (Green) Aviation College Student Challenge that invited students to propose ideas and designs for future aircraft that use less fuel, produce less harmful emissions, and make less noise. Teams from the course placed second and tied for third place in the contest that was open to entrants from US and international colleges and universities.

On their way to the edge of the solar system - about 3 billion miles away - a group of future astronauts will make a stop at Mars for fuel, water, supplies.