2020 American Astronautical Society Fellowships Announced

The American Astronautical Society (AAS) is pleased to announce Riccardo Bevilacqua, Russell Carpenter, Manoranjan Majji, Todd May, Anil Rao, Andrew Sinclair, and Kamesh Subbarao have been elected as AAS Fellows in recognition of their outstanding contributions to astronautics and AAS.

“AAS is very pleased to honor these seven individuals and officially recognize their significant impact on the space industry and the future of space exploration,” said Alan DeLuna, AAS President. “We also appreciate their dedication and support to our Society, helping us to continue in our mission of advancing all space activities.” 

The 2020 class of AAS Fellows will receive their awards at several upcoming AAS events. Please see their biographies below and our website at astronautical.org/fellows for more information.  

AAS Fellow nominations are open to any AAS member who has made outstanding contributions to astronautics. New AAS Fellows are nominated each year by current AAS members and reviewed by a distinguished selection committee. Nominations and selections encompass the broader space industry community. For more information visit astronautical.org/fellows.

Professor Riccardo Bevilacqua holds a M. Sc. in Aerospace Engineering and a Ph. D. in Applied Mathematics, both from the University of Rome in Italy. His research interests focus on spacecraft formation flight, space robotics, small spacecraft, and spacecraft-atmosphere interaction. Dr. Bevilacqua has received national and international recognition for his research contributions as well as for his service to the scientific community. Dr. Bevilacqua has organized the first and second International Conferences on Space Situational Awareness (ICSSA) for the IAA and is in the process of organizing the Third ICSSA in September 2021. Dr. Bevilacqua is a Co-Editor of the journal Acta Astronautica, which is a leading international journal in the space area. 

Dr. J. Russell Carpenter attended The University of Texas at Austin, receiving a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering. He has been with NASA since 1987, spending most of his career focused on development of onboard navigation systems as a Navigator at the Johnson Space Center and the Goddard Space Flight Center. He currently serves as the Deputy Project Manager/Technical for Space Science Mission Operations (SSMO) at Goddard. Dr. Carpenter led the development of navigation and con-junction assessment approaches for the Magnetospheric Multi-Scale (MMS) mission as well as the Goddard Enhanced Onboard Navigation System, which has been widely used within and outside NASA. 

Dr. Manoranjan Majji is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering and is the Director of the Land, Air and Space Robotics (LASR) Laboratory at Texas A & M University. He has a diverse background in several aspects of dynamics and control of aerospace vehicles with expertise spanning the whole spectrum of analysis, modeling, computations, and experiments. He has made fundamental contributions documented in over 120 publications (including 32 journal articles) in the areas of guidance, navigation, and control. In addition to being a scholar, Majji has significant engineering experience developing software systems and embedded systems from OEM products.  

Todd May earned a bachelor’s degree in materials engineering from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. After earning his engineering degree at Auburn University, he entered the space industry as a material engineer in Huntsville, Alabama. Mr. May rose to eventually serve as the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Director for more than two years, after serving briefly as the Deputy Director. His persistence in establishing the Space Launch System (SLS) Program continued his streak in bringing large spaceflight endeavors to fruition, following his leadership in the Discovery and New Frontiers, Gravity Probe B, and International Space Station programs.  Todd May is both a skilled engineer and talented leader of space professionals and stakeholders locally, nationally, and internationally.  

Dr. Anil V. Rao is a distinguished scholar, educator, and engineer. His career in the aerospace field spans over 25 years of service and experience with industry, academia, AAS, and other professional societies. Professor Rao’s research interests lie in the area of control and optimization of space and air vehicles and combine the development of new computational methods for optimal control with novel applications including space mission planning, performance, optimization of atmospheric flight vehicles, and other vehicular control problems (for example, high performance ground and underwater vehicles). His peer reviewed papers are cited at an exceptionally high rate, putting him in a truly elite category amongst aerospace researchers.  

Dr. Andrew J. Sinclair has made many outstanding contributions to spaceflight vehicle guidance and control related fields. He has been serving the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Space Vehicles Directorate as a Senior Aerospace Engineer since 2016. Prior to that, he held a tenured faculty position with the Aerospace Engineering Department at Auburn University where he shaped the entire dynamics and control curriculum. A major focus of Dr. Sinclair’s research has been using linear and nonlinear dynamics concepts to improve the navigation and control of space vehicles. Dr. Sinclair has collaborated extensively with students, faculty, and professional colleagues from across the nation and the world. 

Dr. Kamesh Subbarao is Professor and director of the Aerospace Systems Laboratory (ASL) in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He received his PhD from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A & M University, College Station. After his PhD he worked as an Applications Developer at The MathWorks Inc. (2001-2003) in the Controls and Systems Identification and Estimation Toolboxes group. Prof. Subbarao is well known in the astrodynamics community, with diverse research interests including dynamics, control, robotics, navigation and guidance, estimation, space domain awareness and spacecraft design, as well as atmospheric flight dynamics and propulsion. His work has been published in the pre-eminent journals and is widely cited.  

About AAS 

Since 1954, AAS has been the premier network of current and future space professionals dedicated to advancing all space activities. The Society has long been recognized for the excellence of our national symposia, technical conferences, and publications and for our impact on shaping the U.S. space program. AAS members have opportunities to meet and connect with leaders and peers in the space industry to exchange information and ideas, discuss career aspirations, and expand their knowledge and expertise.  

The American Astronautical Society: Connections. Insight. Credibility. Leadership.