Five Selected for Distinguished Career-Path Appointment
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (3/16/06) -- Dr. Bill Ballhaus, president and chief executive officer of The Aerospace Corporation, announced the distinguished career-path appointments of Drs. Robert Dybdal, Sergio Guarro, Johnson Wang, Sylvia Shen, and Gary Stupian during his report to employees March 16.
Dybdal, senior engineering specialist in the corporation's Antenna Systems Department; Guarro, director, Risk Planning and Assessment Office; and Wang, senior engineering specialist, Fluid Mechanics Department, were named distinguished engineers.
Shen, senior engineering specialist, Sensors Signals and Electronics Subdivision, and Stupian, senior scientist, Electronics and Photonics Laboratory, were named distinguished scientists.
Robert Dybdal
Dybdal is principal investigator for a variety of discretionary, program office, and Civil and Commercial Operations activities. These include prototype designs such as a monitoring capability for Global Positioning System satellites and antenna designs for weather satellite readout terminals for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA prototype terminals are a collaborative effort with Dybdal’s Aerospace colleague Dr. Jerry Michaelson that has received accolades from government officials after their demonstration at conferences.
Sergio Guarro
Guarro provides management and planning leadership for the Risk Planning and Assessment Office and has developed risk-assessment methodologies for launch and space systems such as the one adopted for the launch approval of the NASA Cassini mission. He has served on National Research Council committees as an expert panelist for space systems risk assessment. He provides leadership in the development and establishment of risk management and mission assurance best practices within Aerospace by assisting Space and Missile Systems Center and National Reconnaissance Office programs in the setting and execution of their risk management and mission assurance goals and activities.
Johnson Wang
Wang has made significant technical contributions to numerous Air Force space and launch systems programs, as well as Commercial and Civil Operations programs, primarily in the areas of launch vehicle design technologies, vehicle aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamic analyses, anomaly investigations, and technical reviews. His expertise in computational fluid dynamics and applied aerodynamics has been used to support a wide variety of programs and projects, including several anomaly and failure investigations; independent reviews and assessments; and development of leading edge analysis tools to verify design changes and validate associated test requirements.
Sylvia Shen
Shen is recognized by both academia and industry for her expertise in remote sensing, panchromatic and multi-hyperspectral data exploitation, system design trades, data compression, digital signal processing, pattern recognition, data fusion, and automatic target recognition. She has been the principal investigator/program manager for many government contracts as well as on Independent Research and Development Projects in those areas. She has been responsible for developing many advanced algorithmic and architectural techniques and prototype software systems for massive data exploitation as well as coordinating teams and managing contracts in meeting strict requirements, aggressive goals, and tight schedules.
Gary Stupian
Stupian has a range of experience in microanalysis, including tools, techniques, and the underlying science of microanalysis. His experience spans electron microscopy (transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microscopy, and ion-beam methods) for reliability analysis. These tools and techniques have been used in support of virtually all SMC and NRO programs, as well as NASA and commercial customers. He also has developed these instruments and techniques as tools to be used in forensic analysis in support of local, state, and federal law enforcement activities.
Career-path appointments at The Aerospace Corporation are made based on contributions to the company and to the engineering and scientific communities.
The Aerospace Corporation 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.
Media Inquiries: contact Dave Jonta, 310-336-5041, david.l.jonta@aero.org
