Aerospace Corp's Wanda Austin Wins AIAA-NAE Brill Lectureship

Wanda Austin, President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, has been selected as the recipient of the 2016 Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship.  Sponsored the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), it is awarded biennially to emphasize research or engineering issues for space travel and exploration, aerospace education of the public and students, and other aerospace issues.

Austin is an internationally recognized expert in satellite and payload systems acquisition, systems engineering, and system simulation.  Most of her career has been spent working on classified national security space programs, but she also has been involving in civil space programs and currently serves on the NASA Advisory Council and on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

 
Dr. Wanda Austin.  Photo credit:  Aerospace Corporation website

The lecture honors Yvonne Brill, one of the nation’s top aerospace engineers who passed away in 2013.  President Obama presented her with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2011.  Brill was an Honorary Fellow of AIAA (its highest level of recognition) and a member of NAE.

Austin obtained her Ph.D. in systems engineering from the University of Southern California.  Like Brill, she is a member of NAE and was elected as an AIAA Honorary Fellow in 2015.  She will present the lecture — “Engineering Leadership: The Need for Technical Excellence and Diversity” — on September 15, 2016 in conjunction with AIAA’s SPACE 2016 conference in Long Beach, CA.   Additional details are in AIAA’s press release.