AFIT graduates 248 engineering, management students

Published April 7, 2014
By Contributed story

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- On March 27, 248 Air Force Institute of Technology engineering and management students received their diplomas at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

AFIT graduated 239 master's and nine Ph.D. degrees in 25 different research areas.

"Education and training are the fundamental foundation of our Air Force and why our unique AFIT mission is focused on advancing air, space, and cyberspace power for the nation, its partners and our armed forces. We do this by providing relevant defense-focused technical graduate and continuing education, research and consultation, but the most important thing that makes AFIT different is our students," said Dr. Todd Stewart, AFIT director and chancellor.

During a ceremony earlier in the day at AFIT, some students were presented awards for their exemplary performance during their graduate studies.

"The awards not only signify the recognition of what you have accomplished, but they also convey the trust that we have in you to accomplish more in the future," Dr. Adedeji Badiru, dean of the Graduate School of Engineering and Management, said during the awards ceremony.

Those presented awards included:

· Capt. David Levene was presented the Chancellor's Award for demonstrating the most exceptional individual master's thesis research.
· Capt. Thomas Synovec received the Mervin E. Gross Award for his exceptional academic achievement and high qualities of character, initiative and leadership. The award is named in honor of Brig. Gen. Mervin Gross, first commandant of the institute.
· Capt. Joshua Burger received the Louis F. Polk Award. The winner of this award has exhibited the highest standards of academic and professional accomplishment, and through his or her research made a significant contribution toward strengthening the nation's industrial defense base.
· Capt. Matt Cherry received the Edwin E. Aldrin Sr. Award for displaying the most exceptional leadership characteristics while in the graduate program.
· Master Sgt. Carl Schuett received the Secretary James G. Roche Award for demonstrating exceptional academic achievement through a combination of grade point average and outstanding research, as well as high qualities of character, initiative, leadership and service.

Since AFIT's establishment in November of 1919, the institute has counted among its alumni some of the most accomplished engineers and scientists known worldwide, both past and present. This list includes Air Force pioneers Gen. George Kenney, Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, Gen. Bernard Schriever, Gen. Benjamin Chidlaw, astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Guion Bluford to name a few.

AFIT first granted resident degrees in 1956 and since then more than 17,900 graduate and 660 doctor of philosophy degrees have been awarded. For more information about the Air Force Institute of Technology visit www.afit.edu.

2014 list of AFIT graduates:

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS

Master of Science
2nd Lt. Tony Liu
2nd Lt. Aaron Nelson*

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Master of Science (Cyber Operations)
Capt. Justin Ball
Maj. Brian Beam (U.S. Army)
Capt. Roland Bodenheim
Capt. James Crawford
Maj. Steven Feigh (U.S. Army)
Capt. Daniel Gallagher
Capt. Arturo Garcia (U.S. Army)
2nd Lt. Jordan Keefer
Capt. David King*
Capt. Joseph Marty (U.S. Army)
Capt. Richard Meeker
Capt. Roger Ramstad
Master Sgt. Carl Schuett*
Technical Sergeant Adam Smith
Capt. Jessica Werling

Master of Science (Computer Science)
Capt. John Cobb
2nd Lt. Katherine Lyons
Capt. Solomon Sonya

Master of Science in Computer Engineering
Capt. Jason Blackford
Capt. Scott Dalrymple
Capt. Jeremy Higbee
2nd Lt. Michael Seery

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
2nd Lt. Amy Abraham
2nd Lt. Richard Agbeyibor*
1st Lt. Fawwaz Alsubaie* (Saudi Arabia)
2nd Lt. Anthony Alt
Capt. Munson Anderson
Capt. Eduardo Barajas
Capt. Jason Barhorst
1st Lt. Matthew Bean
2nd Lt. Lindsay Cain
2nd Lt. Katherine Carroll
1st Lt. Alice Chan
Capt. Matthew Crosser*
Capt. Jesse Robert Cruz
Capt. Thea Danella
Capt. Michael Doroski
2nd Lt. Ryan Dowden
Capt. Matthew Flynn
Capt. Virginia Garrett
Capt. Brent Gessel
Capt. Ethan Hennessey
2nd Lt. Matthew Herold
Capt. Heath Honaker
Capt. Bemnnet Kebede
Capt. Russell Krones
2nd Lt. Tristan Latchu
Capt. Jonathan McGuire
Capt. Curtis Medve*
Capt. Eric Mote
2nd Lt. William Murphy
Capt. Michael Myers
2nd Lt. Richard Newberry
2nd Lt. James Orta
Capt. Rajan Pal
Capt. Richard Rademacher
Capt. Luis Rojas (Chile)
Flight Lt. Nicholas Rutherford (Australia)
Capt. Andrew Small
2nd Lt. Justin Soeder
Capt. Christopher Stilson
Capt. Tyler Stubbs
Capt. Jared Thompson*
1st Lt. Isaac Thornton
Thang Tran
2nd Lt. Allan Tuma
2nd Lt. Matthew Vincie
2nd Lt. Kaitlin Werling
1st Lt. Nicholas Westing
Kara Willis
Capt. JasonWyman
2nd Lt. Jennifer Yeom
2nd Lt. Angela Zeqollari
2nd Lt. Kyle Ziegler

DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING PHYSICS

Master of Science (Optical Sciences & Engineering)
Sean Baumann
Maj. Seth Swift

Master of Science in Applied Physics
Capt. William Clements
1st Lt. Keriann Delorme
Capt. Kyle Dufaud
2nd Lt. Coy Fischer
2nd Lt. Eli Garduno*
Capt. Joel Holder
Capt. Haley Homan
Capt. Jeremy Hromsco*
2nd Lt. Christopher McGahan
Capt. Sarah Myers
Capt. Jose Negrette-Fernandez
2nd Lt. Robert Raynor*
2nd Lt. Joshua Reding
2nd Lt. Dushyant Sadhwani
2nd Lt. Gordon Spahr
Capt. Ryan Tervo
Capt. Kyle Thurmond
2nd Lt. Stephen Wakefield
2nd Lt. Keith Wyman

Master of Science (Materials Science)
Capt. James Bondy
Capt. Hans Korth
Capt. Edward Schneider
Maj. Matthew Quinton
Gary Willey

Master of Science (Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction)
Maj. Matthew Greb (U.S. Army)

Master of Science (Nuclear Engineering)
Maj. Andrew Decker (U.S. Army)
1st Lt. Timothy Genda
Capt. Jeffrey Graham
Capt. Andrew Lerch (U.S. Army)
Capt. Tyrone Ospino (U.S. Army)
1st Lt. Tyler Peery
Capt. Matthew Recker
Capt. Timothy Tryon

Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering
1st Lt. Benjamin Abner
Maj. Matthew Gettings (U.S. Army)
Maj. Christopher Lenyk

DEPARTMENT OF OPERATIONAL SCIENCES

Master of Science in Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Capt. Matt Cherry*
Capt. Amber El-Amin
Capt. Bryngel Erickson
Capt. Jacob Jensen
Capt. Arthur Litchfield
Capt. Jose Quintanilla
Capt. Wesley Sheppard
Maj. Adrienne Stahl
Capt. Luke Stover

Master of Science in Operations Research
2nd Lt. Sara Bangert
1st Lt. Ugur Erdemir (Turkey)
Maj. Garret Fett (U.S. Army)
Maj. Charles Flores (US Army)
Capt. Timothy Frawley
1st Lt. Michael Garee
2nd Lt. Raymond Gutierrez
Capt. James Jablonski* (U.S. Army)
Capt. Christopher Jones
Capt. Tanya Kannon*
Maj. Sean Keneally (U.S. Army)
Maj. Umar Khan
2nd Lt. Michael MacAndrew
Capt. Ian McCormack (U.S. Army)
Maj. Kristy Moore
2nd Lt. Emily Power
2nd Lt. Jonathan Turner
Maj. Jesse Wales
Capt. Marc Ward
2nd Lt. Jonathan White

DEPARTMENT OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

Master of Science in Cost Analysis
Capt. Helen Barfield
Capt. Joshua Johnson (U.S. Army)
2nd Lt. Jacob Petter

Master of Science (Engineering Management)
Master Sgt. Corey Perkins

Master of Science in Engineering Management
Capt. Scott Adamson*
Capt. Daniel Amack
Capt. James Bell
Capt. Grant Bloom
Capt. Edward Brouch
Capt. Stanton Brown
Capt. Jared Casebolt
Capt. Mark Chinery
1st Lt. Denis Clayson
Capt. Richard Ellis
Capt. Sean Granier
Capt. Steven Mackinder
Capt. Sean Marshall
Capt. Andrew Pack
Capt. Rebecca Ponder
Capt. Kevin Porter
Master Sgt. James Rhoads
Capt. John Richwine
Capt. Michael Spencer
Capt. Thomas Synovec
Capt. Mario Tellez
Capt. David Wilson

Master of Science in Environmental Engineering and Science
Capt. Kelsey Duckworth* (U.S. Marine Corp)
Maj. Scott King
Capt. Christopher Reardon (U.S. Marine Corp)
Maj. Tho Tran

Master of Science in Industrial Hygiene
Capt. Christopher Bates
Maj. Christopher Edwards
Capt. Tiffany Heline*
Maj. Marc Sylvander

Master of Science (Systems Engineering)
Master Sergeant Yared Abegaz
Capt. Joseph Kim
2nd Lt. Robert Poisson*

Master of Science in Systems Engineering
Capt. Benjamin Bennett
Capt. Joshua Burger
Capt. Allen Deneve
Justine Jeroski
Capt. Jacob Lambach
Capt. Kurt Mitchell
Capt. Charles Neal
Capt. Jason Sutherlin
Stephen Sweetnich
2nd Lt. Kalyn Tung

DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering
2nd Lt. Ruben Adorno-Rodriguez
Capt. Christopher Alban
Jon Aspinwall
Capt. Brian Babis
2nd Lt. James Basel
Capt. Andrew Brinker
Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Brown (U.S. Navy)
Capt. Benjamin Christensen
Capt. Devin Dalton
Capt. Christopher Damele
Capt. Garrett Dilley
Capt. Luke Dras
Richard Fields*
Capt. Mark Gabbard*
Maj. Lars Johnsen
Capt. Robert Latta
Capt. David Levene*
Capt. Mei-Ling Liber
2nd Lt. Riley Livermore
2nd Lt. Mark Mataczynski
Capt. Nathaniel Meier
2nd Lt. Justin Merrick
Capt. Jose Miranda
Capt. Dominic Perry
Capt. Joshua Rittenhouse
Capt. Jared Rupp
Capt. Heather Stickney
Capt. Christopher Terpening
Capt. Jason Thomas
Capt. Brett Tillman
Capt. Daniel Welsh
Capt. Zachary White
Capt. Michael Wilkinson
2nd Lt. Dustin Woodside*

Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering
2nd Lt. Evelyn Abbate
2nd Lt. Erin Dannemeyer
Capt. Elizabeth-Ann Deneve
Capt. Adam Dunk
2nd Lt. Warren Grunwald
Capt. Daniel Hatzung
Capt. Jason Heller
2nd Lt. Kyle Kenerley
Capt. Brian Kester
Capt. Megan Schaffer
Capt. Rebecca Unruh

Master of Science (Materials Science)
Capt. Dustin Bertrand
Capt. Skyler Hilburn

Master of Science (Space Systems)
1st Lt. Rasit Abay* (Turkey)
Capt. William Digiacomo
*Distinguished Graduates

Doctor of Philosophy
Capt. Brook Bentley**
Lt. Col. Corey Broussard
Maj. Rodolfo Buenatello-Herandez**
Lt. Col. Anthony Deluca**
Lt. Col. Daniel Doyle**
Jonathan Evans
Maj. Jason Freels**
Brandon Greenwell
Alex Gutman**
Daniel Hack**
Thomas Harris
Tony Kelly**
Capt. Garrison Lindholm
Gracie Paek-Spidell
Maj. Michael Seal**
Christopher Stevens
Maj. Samuel Stone**
Lt. Col. Jeremy Stringer**
Capt. Joel Turinetti
Maj. Vhance Valencia**
Maj. Gregory Van Dyk**
Karmon Vongsy

**Graduates from previous years who were unable to attend graduation ceremonies who returned to participate in graduation.

(In Absentia)
Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering
Maj. Lars Johnsen

Master of Science in Systems Engineering
Capt. Jacob Lambach