Header Image: Attendees at the banquet, including 2024 honoree Jack Elston (in blue tie).
Above: Prof. Hanspeter Schaub and Jen Uchida with her alumni award.

The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences has honored nine alumni for outstanding contributions to industry, for technical achievement, and public service.

The 2024 AeroBuffs Club Alumni Academy inductees were recognized during a banquet April 19 for work in business, civil, and military aerospace spheres.

“Smead Aerospace has outstanding graduates serving as leaders across the aerospace industry," said Hanspeter Schaub, professor and chair of Smead Aerospace. "We're excited to recognize these individuals for their personal achievements and what they've given to our industry as a whole. They're solving big challenges and pushing the limits of what is possible in aerospace engineering sciences."

Honorees were recognized in three categories:

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Commercial Enterprise

• Derek Lerner (AeroEngr BS'04) (Over 40 Category) – As senior director within the Corporate Chief Technology Office at Northrop Grumman, Lerner leads  the engineering and systems engineering capabilities for the corporation, with previous key roles at both Orbital ATK and Orbital Sciences.
• Dave Murrow (AeroEngr BS'84) (Over 40 Category) – Murrow has served in major roles designing deep space exploration missions for Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retiring in 2023 after a 36 year career. He now operates his own consulting business, Space Connections.
• Todd Mosher (AeroEngr MS'95, PhD'00) (Over 40 Category) – Mosher is a director at Blue Origin with more than 30 years of experience working in human and robotic spaceflight systems as a technical authority and manager, and is currently a Presidential Leadership Scholar.
• Chris Ellerhorst (AeroEngr BS'08) (Under 40 Category) – Ellerhorst has served in leading roles at United Launch Alliance and Lockheed Martin, and is currently vice president of the Kuiper Program at ULA, overseeing financial, technical and operational activities of the multi-billion dollar program.
• Ryan Slabaugh (AeroEngr BS'15, MS'15) (Under 40 Category) – A Marine Corps combat veteran with software engineering leadership experience at Lockheed Martin and Boeing, Slabaugh has garnered recognition for his strategic leadership in delivering mission-critical software and fostering cultural change.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Public Service

• Patrick Binning (AeroEngr MS'94, PhD'97) (Over 40 Category) – Binning is an aerospace defense leader and educator, directing teams that have made ground-breaking contributions to projects at the Naval Research Lab, National Reconnaissance Office, Missile Defense Agency, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Technical Achievement

• Jack Elston (ElCompEngr’03, MS’05, AeroEngr MS’07 PhD’11) (Over 40 Category) – As CEO and co-founder of Black Swift Technologies, Elston has built a startup developing uncrewed aircraft systems for extreme environments, including wildland fires, volcanoes, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
• Jen Uchida (AeroEngr BS'05, MS'05) (Over 40 Category) – Uchida is a senior test program manager at Boeing with a career spanning the flight test industry from military aircraft, to civil type certification, to electric aviation. She is a former NASA Astronaut finalist, and volunteers time with CU Boulder, professional societies, and scholarship foundations for women in STEM.
• Laura Stiles (AeroEngr MS'11, PhD'13) (Under 40 Category) – Stiles has served more than 10 years an aerospace engineer at Blue Origin, holding multiple design, test, and launch positions advancing private human spaceflight. She is now a Blue Origin astronaut trainer and leads multiple technical evaluation committees at the company.

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The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences honored graduates and faculty during a special 2023 alumni banquet.

Seven graduates were recognized for achievements in education, industry, research, and public service.

“These outstanding graduates are being honored for being visionaries in aeronautics and astronautics and leaders in their fields,” said Hanspeter Schaub, chair of Smead Aerospace. “We are pleased to recognize outstanding careers in aerospace engineering sciences, as well as early career achievements.  These individuals are solving big challenges and are leading the industry towards new frontiers.”

In addition, three longtime faculty were honored for their contributions to research and education in aerospace.

The banquet was held at CU Boulder's Byron White Club on April 21.

Alumni honorees were recognized in three categories:

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Commercial Enterprise

• Daryl Bahls (AeroEngr'77) (Over 40 Category) - Bahls retired from a 37-year career at Boeing and Martin Marietta, where he made major contributions to interplanetary mission design to solar system bodies, gravity assist flybys, and atmospheric entry. He also designed large-scale and specialized satellite constellations for geosynchronous and low-Earth orbits.
• Kenneth Center (AeroEngr'89, MS'91, PhD'93) (Over 40 Category) - Center founded a small business that created scientifically grounded computer animations for aircraft accident investigations. He is now director of advanced programs at Orbit Logic, where he specializes in autonomous flight software and modular space architecture technologies.
• Bradley Cheetham (MAeroEngr'11) (Under 40 Category) - Cheetham is the co-founder and CEO of Advanced Space, where he has led the successful lunar orbiter CAPSTONE along with a portfolio of commercial and government space projects. He also played a central role in bringing an FAA Center of Excellence in Commercial Space to CU Boulder.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Public Service

• Kyle Kemble (AeroEngr'13, MS'13) (Under 40 Category) - Kemble is a leading figure for the development and use of small satellite technologies and has made important contributions to the United States Space Force in the Space Warfighting Analysis Center.
• Tim Straube (AeroEngr'91, MS'93, PhD'10) (Over 40 Category) - Straube is a leader for NASA’s Orion program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, with key roles in the production of the Software, Guidance, and Navigation systems for the Artemis I mission around the Moon, completed in December 2022, and earlier Orion flight tests. He previously had leadership and critical technical roles on the Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station programs.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Research

• Daniel Kubitschek (MechEngr'90; MAeroEngr'94, PhD'97) (Over 40 Category) - Kubitschek was a major contributor to autonomous navigation for the Deep Impact comet mission, aero braking on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and led attitude determination and control and flight dynamics for the Emirates Mars Mission.
• Gary Wick (AeroEngr'88, MS'90, PhD'95) (Over 40 Category) - Wick, an internationally recognized expert in the NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, has made advancements in the application and evaluation of remote sensing for oceanic and atmospheric research.

Honored Retired and Retiring Faculty

• Prof. Emeritus Bob Culp - (AeroEngr MS'63, PhD' 66) Culp is a world authority on space debris, satellite fragmentation modeling, hazards to resident space objects, and the space environment.
• Prof. Emeritus Bill Emery - Emery has conducted extensive studies of ocean surface processes, developed processing software for operational weather satellites and conducted studies of high-resolution satellite imagery for urban change detection and mapping of disaster effects.
• Teaching Professor Donna Gerren - (Aero Engr BS'77, MS'79) Gerren's career has taken her from the Apollo-Soyuz Mission, to McDonnell Douglas, to the development of advanced aircraft analysis computer software. She returned to CU Boulder as a faculty member in 1995 where she has been a leading educator and mentor to thousands of students.

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And liftoff.

Today, visitors from across Colorado gathered at CU Boulder for an event celebrating the new Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building, home to the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. This building, which occupies roughly 175,000 square feet on East Campus, will be the new home for faculty and students seeking to expand humanity’s presence in space—and explore our home planet, too.

The grand opening event had a block party atmosphere, complete with food trucks and a bounce house shaped like a rocket.

To kick things off, Chancellor Philip DiStefano led a ribbon-cutting ceremony alongside leaders from CU Boulder and beyond. They included Bobby Braun, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science; Brian Argrow, chair of the aerospace engineering department; John Hayes, CEO of Ball Corporation; Penina Axelrad, professor of aerospace engineering; Emily Mitzak, aerospace student ambassador; and donors Ann Smead and Michael Byram.

Industry representatives also helped usher in Colorado’s new hub for aerospace. Officials from Lockheed Martin, General Atomics and L3Harris Technologies were all in attendance, as well as United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno.

In a twist befitting the event, Smead used a giant pair of scissors to snip a ribbon hoisted in the air by two flying drones.

“Our new Aerospace Building is a tangible sign of our commitment to our students, faculty and staff, to provide spaces where they can learn, grow and collaborate,” DiStefano said. “It is also a sign of our commitment as a university to remaining at the forefront of aerospace engineering research, education and innovation for the state and the nation.”

Braun agreed, noting that the new building, a $101 million investment, will fit into CU Boulder’s rapidly-growing “aerospace alley.”

“This new home for our amazing aerospace engineering faculty, staff and students fits within an already-impressive legacy of space activity across our campus,” Braun said. “The science and technology developed right here in Colorado is enabling our nation’s future in space.”

Colorado in space

Days before, the new building received another prestigious send-off: a visit from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

Bridenstine spent Friday, Aug. 23, on campus, first touring the (LASP), then visiting the aerospace engineering building just down the street. There, he peeked at a model nose cone of a Dream Chaser spacecraft, which was donated to CU Boulder by Sierra Nevada Corp. and serves as a spaceflight simulator.

In a question-and-answer session with students, Bridenstine talked about the space agency’s push to return American astronauts to the moon by 2024—an effort that CU Boulder researchers have been instrumental in supporting.

“I’m very excited about the role Colorado will play in the United States’ continuing leadership in space exploration,” Bridenstine said. “NASA partnerships with private companies and research organizations like CU Boulder are a model for the future and instrumental in helping us put the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024.”

One student even asked Bridenstine if NASA might consider sending an all-woman mission to the moon in the future.
 
“Have we considered it?” he said at the event. “Yes, and, in fact, that wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what we did.”

CU Boulder is the largest recipient of NASA research dollars among public universities in the U.S. and has, over its history, visited all eight planets in the solar system—plus Pluto, the sun, asteroids and more.

Future of space exploration

The future of that legacy was on display during Monday’s event, which drew a crowd of hundreds.

Outside, families played lawn games and listened to the music of the Blue Canyon Boys. Officials also buried a time capsule containing, among other artifacts, a CU Buffs baseball hat that flew aboard the International Space Station for six months and a circuit board built by students. It won’t be dug up again until September 2071 on the 125th anniversary of the founding of the aerospace department.

Inside, the fun continued as visitors toured the building’s labs and educational spaces. They included fabrication labs where students will soon design and print new hardware for everything from robots to satellites. And visitors got the chance to see an indoor space where researchers will test out ground-based and aerial drones.

It’s a learning environment that excites Emily Mitzak, a CU Boulder sophomore studying aerospace engineering.

“I am so grateful to attend CU Boulder, and to have been accepted into the Aerospace Engineering program. However, coming from out of state, I was a little unsure of my decision,” Mitzak said. “The new Aerospace building truly creates a sense of community, and ensures me that I made the right choice.”

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