Briar Woods Senior Michael Fowler Top Essayist in The Aerospace Corporation’s Science Competition

CHANTILLY, Va. (June 4, 2008) —Michael Fowler, a senior at Briar Woods High School in Ashburn, Va., earned a $500 U.S. savings bond for capturing first place in The Aerospace Corporation’s annual Robert H. Herndon Memorial Science Competition.

Fowler’s essay on “The Correlation of Carbon Dioxide and Hurricanes” was selected as best among submissions by five Briar Woods students.

Jessica Kyle, also a senior at Briar Woods, received a $250 bond for placing second. Her essay was titled “The Relationship Between the 2007 Drought in Virginia and the Water Quality of Goose Creek in Loudon County.”

The competition, held for nine consecutive years at The Aerospace Corporation’s regional office in Chantilly, is designed to stimulate interest among minority students in science, engineering, and technology, and increase diversity within the aerospace industry.

This year’s event was held on May 29. A total of nine Briar Woods students participated in the day’s activities, which featured—in addition to the essay competition—demonstrations of space technology and a tour of The Aerospace Corporation’s labs.

The keynote speaker at the awards program was Robert F. Newkirk Jr., a senior project engineer at Aerospace, whose topic was “Setting Goals for the Future and Working Toward Them.”
Welcoming remarks were delivered by Dr. Mal De Ponte, senior vice president of the company’s National Systems Group. Also participating was Dr. William H. Hiatt, general manager of the Electronics and Sensors Division, who delivered introductory remarks at the awards ceremony and introduced Newkirk. Peggy M. Tatum of the company’s Corporate Information Resources Division was the event chair.
The competition is named for an inspirational Aerospace scientist and mentor who died in 1976.
A similar event has been held for 30 years at The Aerospace Corporation’s headquarters in El Segundo, Calif. The 31st event is set for June 5.

The Aerospace Corporation, based in El Segundo, Calif., is an independent, nonprofit company that provides objective technical analyses and assessments for national security space programs and selected civil and commercial space programs in the national interest.

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Contact Peggy Tatum at 703-633-5308, peggy.m.tatum@aero.org, or Dave Jonta at 310-336-5041, david.l.jonta@aero.org.