RESTON, Va., Oct. 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AIAA is pleased to announce its newly elected Class of 2026 Associate Fellows. The Institute will formally honor the class at the AIAA Associate Fellows Induction Ceremony and Dinner, Wednesday, 14 January 2026, at the Hyatt Regency Orlando during AIAA SciTech Forum 2026, 12–16 January 2026, Orlando, Florida.

“Congratulations to each member of the Class of 2026 Associate Fellows,” said AIAA President Dan Hastings. “This distinguished group of professionals has performed extraordinary work and advanced the state of science and technology in aeronautics and astronautics. They exemplify a dedication to excellence in their specific technical disciplines. We are proud of their achievements as they shape the future of aerospace.”

The grade of Associate Fellow recognizes individuals “who have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work, or who have done original work of outstanding merit, or who have otherwise made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.” To be selected as an Associate Fellow an individual must be an AIAA Senior Member in good standing, with at least 12 years of professional experience, and be recommended by three AIAA members.

For more information on the AIAA Honors Program or AIAA Associate Fellows, contact Patricia A. Carr at patriciac@aiaa.org.

Class of 2026 AIAA Associate Fellows
Ajit Achuthan, Clarkson University
Kevin R. Anderson, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Dale C. Arney, NASA Langley Research Center
Dilmurat M. Azimov, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
Damiano Baccarella, University of Tennessee
Sean Bailey, University of Kentucky
Brent W. Barbee, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Maryland, College Park
Tadas P. Bartkus, Ohio Aerospace Institute
Tahllee Baynard, Lockheed Martin Space
David R. Beering, Intelligent Designs LLC
Kevin D. Bell, The Aerospace Corporation
Mark G. Benton, Sr., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Arizona
Reid A. Berdanier, Pennsylvania State University
Robert A. Bettinger, Air Force Institute of Technology
Natasha Bosanac, University of Colorado Boulder
Pablo C. Bueno, Southwest Research Institute
Goutam Chattopadhyay, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
John G. Clark, Lockheed Martin
Cameron W. Coates, Kennesaw State University
Richard K. Cohn, Ursa Major Technologies
Lt. Col. Christopher Coley, United States Air Force
Velibor Ćormarković, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Christopher Courtin, Electra.aero
Beni Cukurel, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology
Daniel R. Cuppoletti, University of Cincinnati
Danielle S. Curcio, RTX
Andrea Da Ronch, University of Southampton
Scott T M Dawson, Illinois Institute of Technology
Jan W. Delfs, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Edward P. DeMauro, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Benjamin Dickinson, Air Force Research Laboratory
Con J. Doolan, University of New South Wales
Christopher Brian Dreyer, Colorado School of Mines
Harold Ennulat, Software Engineering Institute
Alper Erturk, Georgia Institute of Technology
Antony D. Evans, Airbus
Nicolas Fezans, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Matthew L. Fotia, Air Force Research Laboratory
Jacob George, Metrolaser Inc.
Leslie Gertsch, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Ritesh Ghimire, United States Federal Aviation Administration
Keith D. Goodfellow, Aerojet Rocketdyne / L3Harris
Amelia D. Greig, BAE Systems Inc.
Mark Robert Grindle, Systems Enginuity
Peter Hancock, University of Central Florida
Darren John Hartl, Texas A&M University
Liam M. Healy, Naval Research Laboratory
Jesse B. Hoagg, University of Kentucky
Kristin Houston, L3Harris Technologies
Erin Hubbard, NASA Glenn Research Center
Lester A. Ingham, Honda Aircraft Company
Louise Jandura, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Elishka L. Jepson, RTX
Michael Jones, Systems Technology, Inc.
Daewon Kim, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Hyun Jung Kim, KAIST
Michael P. Kinzel, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Julie E. Kleinhenz, NASA Glenn Research Center
Ali R. Kolaini, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ramesh Kolar, U.S. Army DEVCOM AvMC TDD-A DSE CD&A
Jarret M. Lafleur, Sandia National Laboratories / Ursa Major Technologies
Rhea P. Liem, Imperial College London
Yu Cheng Liu, Tsinghua University
Yang Liu, City College of New York
Francisco Lopez Jimenez, University of Colorado Boulder
Alejandro Lopez Ortega, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mark H. Lowenberg, University of Bristol
Christopher A. Lupp, Air Force Research Laboratory
Ou Ma, University of Cincinnati
Lori A. Magruder, University of Texas at Austin
Luca Massa, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Ellen Yi Chen Mazumdar, Georgia Institute of Technology
Matthew McCrink, Ohio State University
Matthew McGilvray, University of Oxford
Michael D. McPartland, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Marcel Milanes, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
Michael Z. Miller, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Guy Juan Montoro, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
James D. Moreland, Jr., MEI Innovative Solutions Inc.
Catalin C. Nae, INCAS – National Institute for Aerospace Research “Elie Carafoli”
Björn Nagel, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Douglas J. Neill, Computational Engineering Software, LLC
Linda O'Brien, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
Mark Olmos, Northrop Grumman Space Systems
Michael Otte, University of Maryland, College Park
Ganesh J. Pai, KBR
Pinaki Pal, Argonne National Laboratory
Amit Pandey, Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Marco Pavone, Stanford University / NVIDIA
Tanya Pemberton, The Aerospace Corporation
Daniel Plakosh, Carnegie Mellon University / Software Engineering Institute
Brent Pomeroy, NASA Langley Research Center
Savio James Poovathingal, University of Kentucky
Russell W. Powers, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division
Michael W. Renfro, University of Kentucky
Nilton O. Renno, University of Michigan
Christopher L. Reynolds, Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Daniel R. Richardson, Sandia National Laboratories
James L. Rutledge, Air Force Institute of Technology
Umberto Saetti, University of Maryland, College Park
Marco Sagliano, University of Bologna
Abhishek Saha, University of California, San Diego
Gerald B. Sanders, NASA Johnson Space Center (retired)
Grady Pike Saunders, Amentum Technology, Inc.
Bryan E. Schmidt, Case Western Reserve University
Brandon Sforzo, Argonne National Laboratory
Peter J. Sharer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Paul Sierpinski, NASA Kennedy Space Center
Rohan Sood, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Shawn S. Stephens, United States Air Force
James P. Stewart, Electra.aero
Liang Sun, Baylor University
Takao Suzuki, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Hideyuki Taguchi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Jimmy C. Tai, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jekan Thangavelautham, University of Arizona
James Chris Thomas, Southwest Research Institute
Christoph Torens, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Paul J. van Susante, Michigan Technological University
Diane C. Villanueva, The MITRE Corporation
James M. Walton, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
Alan Weston, Astra
Brian S. Woodard, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Kris Zacny, Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company
Hossein Zare-Behtash, Emirates Aviation University
Bo Zhang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Yufei Zhang, Tsinghua University
Liwei Zhang, University of Texas at Arlington
Dianyun Zhang, Purdue University
Wenwen Zhao, Zhejiang University

AIAA Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, RebeccaG@AIAA.org, 804-397-5270

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.