AFOSR earns three prestigious science and engineering awards

  • Published
  • By Molly Lachance
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research Public Affairs
ARLINGTON, Va. --  Each year the Air Force recognizes its top performers at the Air Force Science, Technology and Engineering Awards held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. When officials announced the winners last week, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research had three.

· Dr. Michael Berman: John L. McLucas Basic Research Award
· Maj. Jennifer Gresham: Air Force Research and Development Award
· Dr. John Schmisseur: Air Force Science and Engineering Award for Engineering Management

Dr. Berman, an Air Force Research Laboratory Fellow, won the John L. McLucas Basic Research Award because of his long and distinguished career fostering transformational research in chemistry. His accomplishments include novel gas-electric hybrid lasers, ionic liquid propellants and nanoenergetics.

This particular award is given to individuals who make outstanding contributions through scientific efforts and achievements of in-house basic research.

Maj. Gresham, now in the AFRL Plans and Programs division at Wright-Patterson, received an Air Force Research and Development Award, which recognizes accomplishments of military personnel working in the area of applied research or advanced technology development.

In her career, she has initiated research on novel power systems for micro air vehicles, overseen development of environmentally friendly aircraft coatings, and served as an eloquent advocate of basic science.

Dr. John Schmisseur received an Air Force Science and Engineering Award for his outstanding contributions to engineering management. His promotion of exciting research in hypersonics, recent development of a national foundational research plan for hypersonics with NASA and DOE, and establishment of a strong collaborative program with Australia made him the top candidate this year.

"The entire AFOSR team is gratified that three of our excellent program managers have been honored by Air Force Science, Technology and Engineering Awards this year," said AFOSR director, Dr. Brendan Godfrey. "All bring great credit to the Air Force Research Laboratory."