Purdue University professor Nicole Key has been awarded the 2025 Ground Testing Award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). She received her award in July at the 2025 AIAA Aviation Forum and 2025 ASCEND alongside many other recipients at the prestigious awards ceremony.  

Established in 1975, the Ground Testing Award is presented for outstanding achievement in the development of effective utilization of technology, procedures, facilities, or modeling techniques for flight simulation, space simulation, propulsion test, aerodynamic testing, or other ground testing associated with aeronautics and astronautics.  Key’s work on improving high-speed compressor and fan technologies, alongside her rigorous diagnostic methods, has earned her this distinguished award.   

Key has been at Purdue University ever since she was an undergraduate student getting her bachelor’s in science. Currently, she is the Avrum and Joyce Gray Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Associate Head for Graduate Studies in Mechanical Engineering. She is a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics by courtesy. Hard at work pushing the frontiers of turbomachinery and fluid mechanics research, she has dedicated her time to researching high-speed compressors and fan technologies at her High-Speed Compressor Research Laboratory at Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, the largest academic propulsion lab in the world.  

For more information about her award, visit Ground Testing Award - AIAA - Shaping the future of aerospace | AIAA.