Air Vehicles Directorate honors annual award winners Published March 3, 2009 By Holly Jordan AFRL Air Vehicles Directorate WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The Air Force Research Laboratory Air Vehicles Directorate here honored its own at the 43rd annual awards luncheon, held February 11, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Dayton. The theme for the event was "Changing the face of technology: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow." Guests were surrounded by visual reminders of Air Vehicles innovations throughout the years. The featured guest speaker for the event was Richard P. Hallion, retired Headquarters Air Force Senior Advisor for Air and Space Issues. He spoke to the crowd about the many challenges the Air Force has faced throughout the years and the efforts that will be necessary in the coming decades. Air Vehicles Structures Division Chief John Bowlus served as the master of ceremonies. Col John B. Wissler, director of the Air Vehicles Directorate, and Dr. Donald Paul, Air Vehicles Chief Scientist, presented the awards. The highlight of the event was the presentation of the directorate's top two awards, the Courtland D. Perkins in-house engineering award and the Benjamin D. Foulois award for significant contributions to aerospace technology. The Courtland D. Perkins award was presented to Matthew Duquette for his development of a simulation framework that facilitated the development, demonstration, and analysis of cooperative control systems for unmanned aerial vehicles. The Benjamin D. Foulois award was presented to the team of Dr. Jose Camberos and Dr. David Moorhouse for their development of exergy-based methods for systems integration, analysis, and design of aerospace vehicles. Other awards presented were as follows: Doris C. Mooney Award -- Suzie Delong Co-op Student of the Year -- Marshall Galbraith STEP Student of the Year -- Jill Price Mission Support Award for S&E -- Larry Byram Mission Support Award for non-S&E -- Linda Schwartz Mission Support Award (Team) -- Marketing Team: Cari Boos, Justin Earley, Holly Jordan Supervisory Award -- Andrew Sparks Persistence Award -- Douglas Wetzel Scientific/Technical Management Award -- Heidi Wilkin Senior Scientific/Technical Management Award -- David Homan Leadership Award -- Capt Matthew Burkinshaw Senior Leadership Award -- James Myatt Director's Award (Individual) -- Michael Gran Director's Award (Team) -- Computer Science Team: Datta Gaitonde, Jonathan Poggie, Eswar Josyula, Miguel Visbal, Raymond Gordnier, Donald Rizzetta Spirit Award -- Brian Hager Special Director's Award -- Ashley Kelly