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STAIF-2004
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NASA Project
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Lockheed Martin Space
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Swales Aerospace |
Institute for Space and
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Sandia National
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National Museum
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NASA Johnson Space Center Human Research Facility |
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Northrop Grumman
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The Boeing Company
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Sunpower, Inc. |
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General Atomics
BWX Technologies >> |
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Oak Ridge National
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NASA John C. Stennis
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Stirling Technology
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The STAIF-2004 Awards Banquet was held Tuesday, February 9, 2004.
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STAIF-2004 Awards Banquet |
Outstanding Paper Award (STAIF-2003)
The Outstanding Paper Award was established in 1992 by the University of New Mexico's Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS) to recognize outstanding technical contributions to the fields of all hosted conferences at STAIF. The recognition of the contribution is based upon the written paper published in the Proceedings of the year prior to when the awards are given and the content of the presentation at the technical session of STAIF. The award is presented by ISNPS upon the recommendation of the Outstanding Paper Award Committee. While it is unlikely, more than one significant contribution can be recognized for each conference. Recipients of the STAIF-2003 Outstanding Paper Award are:
General Ernest C. Hardin, Jr. Scholarship Award
This scholarship fund was established in 1986 by the University of New Mexico's Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies to recognize outstanding undergraduate students who are pursuing a B.S. degree in nuclear engineering as well as graduate students who are pursuing M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering with a space power option at the University of New Mexico. Several undergraduate student awards are offered annually to deserving students. Each of these awards consists of a certificate of recognition and a monetary award. Recipients of the General Ernest C. Hardin, Jr. Scholarship Award for 2003 are:
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Terry J. Morton |
Lynette Bates |
Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award
The Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award was established by The University of New Mexico's Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies on behalf of the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) to recognize national and international contributions that have advanced space technologies and applications through excellence in pioneering applications, technical contributions, public service or leadership. The Award consists of $2,500 (shared equally if there are multiple awardees who have contributed jointly) and a memento. The award is given by ISNPS when a worthy person or persons is identified by the Award Committee, but is not given more frequently than, nor necessarily, annually. The Schreiber-Spence Award(s) will be presented at the annual Space Technology and Applications International Forum and the awardee(s) is/are expected to attend. The recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award for STAIF-2004 is Robert W. Bussard.
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Robert Bussard (r) receives the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award. |
The Awards Banquet speaker for STAIF-2004 was Mr. Dave Lavery, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mr. Lavery is responsible for executive oversight of the design and development of the next generation of Mars exploration spacecraft, and the advanced technologies to enable them. He is currently responsible for the two Mars Exploration Rover-2003 missions, and the joint European-U.S. Mars Express mission, all of which recently arrived at Mars. In addition, he leads the Mars Advanced Technology Program which is creating new approaches to remote exploration by robotic systems. Prior to these assignments, Mr. Lavery directed the NASA Telerobotics Research Program for 12 years. While at NASA, Mr. Lavery has been a participant in the field party for the Dante I and Dante II projects, which deployed robotic rovers inside active volcanoes in the Antarctic and Alaska during 1992 and 1994.
He was the program manager for the AERcam/Sprint project, which flew a self-contained, free-flying robotic camera platform on the STS-86 Space Shuttle mission in 1996. The Sojourner planetary rover, which landed Mars on July 4, 1997 was also under his management. He directs the NASA Robotics Education Project, including agency participation in the FIRST robotics competition program.
Congressman Robert S. Walker retired from the U.S. House of Representatives after serving Pennsylvania's 16th District for twenty years. During that service he became Chairman of the Science Committee, Chief Deputy Republican Whip, Chairman of the Republican leadership and Speaker Pro Tempore. Because of his role as GOP floor manager for much of his career, the prestigious insider publication, The National Journal, said of him, "Indeed as much as anyone, he is the father of the revolution that led to the Republican victory in 1994."
As Chairman of Wexler & Walker, the former Congressman has been cited as one of Washington's top lobbyists by The Hill newspaper; as a "superstar lobbyist" by Financial Wire; is regularly called upon to testify on Capitol Hill; is a Bush Administration confidante having been asked to serve as Chairman of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry and as a member of the President's Commission on the United States Postal Service; is a familiar participant on CNN's "Crossfire;" is a lecturer at the Brookings Institution, the Georgetown University Government Affairs Institute and the Kennedy School at Harvard University; is a commentator and resource for CNBC, PBS and Fox News; and is a writer of books and articles. All of this activity gives Wexler & Walker clients unparalleled insight into public policy formulation and decision-making.
From President Bush's hydrogen initiative to the complexities of postal reform, Mr. Walker has played a key role in development and implementation of major public strategies. He is seen as an expert in science, space, technology and energy issues and a master of legislative tactics and procedure.
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Speaker's |
In 1996, Mr. Walker was the first sitting House Member to be awarded NASA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal. He continues his involvement in space policy as a board member of the Aerospace Corporation, the Space Foundation and SpaceDev. In addition, he is a member of the advisory boards of IMAX Corporation and InnerLink. His community outreach work includes the boards of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society and the American League of Lobbyists.
Prior to his election to Congress in 1976, Mr. Walker was a high school teacher and a congressional aide. He holds a B.S. in Education from Millersville University in Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Delaware, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Franklin and Marshall College. He and his wife Sue maintain homes in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC.
Mike Sander leads the team developing plans and designs for the Mars Science Laboratory Project, NASA's major Mars mission scheduled for launch in October 2009. This mission will develop the next generation of Mars Lander, containing a significantly increased scientific payload, intended to operate for several years on the surface of Mars. From October 1998 to April 2001, he was the Director of JPL's Technology and Applications Directorate, encompassing advanced technology development activities for future space missions, Department of Defense, and the transfer of JPL's technology base to the commercial sector.
From February 1995 to October 1998, Sander has served as deputy director of JPL's Space and Earth Science Programs Directorate and as project manager for JPL's Develop New Products reengineering activities. Previously, he was manager of JPL's Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) project. With JPL since 1963, Sander has worked in various capacities in JPL management and project organizations, including management of JPL's Mission Control Center. His early career was spent processing science data from the first missions to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and beyond.
In 1980, Sander left JPL for five years to serve at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., first as the deputy director of the Life Sciences Division and then as the director of the Shuttle Payloads Engineering Division, where he was responsible for Spacelab and other scientific payloads on the Space Shuttle.
Born in Jerusalem, he earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Occidental College in Los Angeles. A three-time recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work on the Voyager mission, Spacelab One and the SIR-C Project, Sander is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He and his wife, Jane, live in Thousand Oaks.
Plenary Speaker
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Dr. Harley Thronson is Director of Technology in the Office of Space Science (OSS) at NASA Headquarters. His duties include selection and development of advanced technologies, which will significantly enhance future space science missions such as future large astronomical observatories and robotic missions to Mars and other planets. He also coordinates technology investment with other NASA Enterprises and agencies. His previous duties at NASA have included serving as the Acting Science Program Director for the Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems. He has also served as the senior scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and a number of other missions. Dr. Thronson arrived at NASA Headquarters in 1996, after several years as a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Wyoming, where his research areas included star formation, the structure of galaxies, and future space observatories.
William O'Neil received his BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University with Distinction in 1961. He has an MSAE from USC. He worked at Boeing Airplane Company and Lockheed Missiles and Space Company prior to joining JPL in 1963. His assignments at JPL have included trajectory design and navigation for Surveyor--the first soft landing lunar spacecraft, Navigation Chief for Mariner Mars 1971--the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another planet, Navigation Chief for Viking--the first soft-landings on Mars, and Manager of the JPL Mission Design Department. Mr. O'Neil served as the Science and Mission Design Manager for Project Galileo during its development phase throughout the 1980's. A few months after Galileo's October 18, 1989 launch, Mr. O'Neil was appointed Galileo Project Manager. The Galileo spacecraft--an Orbiter and an Entry Probe--arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995 becoming the first to penetrate an outer planet atmosphere and the first to orbit an outer planet. On its circuitous route, Galileo became the first spacecraft to perform asteroid flybys--Gaspra in October 1991 and Ida in August 1993. Project Galileo discovered a natural satellite of Ida--the first ever sighting of an asteroid satellite. The Galileo Orbiter successfully completed its two-year primary mission scientific tour of the Jupiter System on December 7, 1997 and has been in an extended Jupiter tour now approaching six years beyond its design specifications.
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Coffee Break |
In February 1998 Mr. O'Neil was appointed Chief Technologist for the Mars Exploration Program at JPL. He led the Mars Sample Return Mission Architecture Study and subsequently the implementation planning for the Mars Sample Return Project with first missions to be launched in 2003 and 2005 to return samples to Earth in 2008. On November 16, 1998 Mr. O'Neil was appointed Project Manager for the Mars 2003/2005 Sample Return Project (MSR), which was to be the first project to bring samples from another planet to Earth. MSR was indefinitely postponed in the wake of the Mars'98 mission failures. Mr. O'Neil served as the Manager of JPL's Systems Management Office within the JPL Director's Office in the last year of his JPL career retiring on May 1, 2001.
Mr. O'Neil continues as Chairman of the Space Exploration Committee of the International Astronautical Federation and is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.
Mr. O'Neil has been honored with NASA's highest award--the Distinguished Service Medal--for his management of Project Galileo. In 1997 he received the Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award and an honorary Doctorate from the University of Padova, Italy--Galileo's University. He resides with his wife of in Sierra Madre, California, a small village suburb in the northeastern foothills of Los Angeles. They have two adult children, Philip and Christine, and a teenage granddaughter, Eilly. Their youngest child, Gregory, died of a massive first heart attack at age 40 in 2002.
Mr. O'Neil's non-professional interests include travel, downhill skiing, his classic Packard and Lincoln automobiles, their mountain cabin retreat, and their "mom & pop" six-unit apartment building.
Each year STAIF includes an educational outreach component designed to serve secondary school students and teachers throughout New Mexico, comprised of the Secondary School Special Session and the New Mexico Space Design Competition. These sessions are organized by The University of New Mexico's Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies and in 2004 were cosponsored by the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium Program at UNM and NASA National Space Grant Colleges and Fellowship Program. Irene El-Genk of West Mesa High School, Albuquerque, NM served as program chair for the special session during which space-related topics were presented by members of the science and engineering community.
Post-doctoral candidate Jeffrey C. King of ISNPS-UNM coordinated 2004's Space Design Competition, "Orbital Shipyard One."
Both the final program and abstract book for STAIF-2004 are available in PDF format below. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these files on your computer. Visit Adobe to download this free software.)
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With over 700 attendees, 2004 ranks as one of STAIF's best years on record, and hosted more than 260 presentations in 69 technical sessions. Participants traveled to Albuquerque from 13 countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, Spain the United Kingdom, Australia and the U.S. 5.4% of the attendees were international, 11.5% were students and educators at US Colleges and Universities, 43.7% were government employees, and 39.4% represented industry.
