AAE Senior Abby Frank honored with G.A. Ross Award
As Abby Frank walks across the stage this year, she'll be taking more than a diploma home. She’ll be carrying years of real-world rocketry experiences, campuswide mentorship, and the honor of being one of just two students at Purdue to receive this year’s G.A. Ross Award.
Open to candidates across the entire university, honorees are given a $2,000 reward and a medallion. Their names are also permanently engraved on the award marker at the Purdue Engineering Mall.
The award recognizes graduating seniors who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to scholarship, leadership and service, and outstanding character. Nomination letters praised Frank for these qualities.
“She leads quietly, listens carefully, and consistently prioritizes the success of others,” wrote Kevin Parsons, associate professor of engineering practice. “Abby’s presence raises the standard of any group she is part of — not through pressure or authority, but through example.”
In her nomination, Karen Marais, professor and associate head for undergraduate studies at AAE, recalled Frank’s transformative efforts in fostering an inclusive team culture in the Purdue Space Program (PSP) student club.
“She led efforts that increased female representation in PSP leadership, established mentoring pathways for new members, and created an environment where students felt empowered to take risks, learn from failure, and collaborate openly,” Marais wrote. “Her leadership fundamentally changed the culture of the organization and left a model for future cohorts to follow.”
Frank credits her time at Purdue as the prime factor that’s prepared her for what’s next: “Each of these experiences has taught me lessons in leadership, technical skills, and teamwork, and shaped me as a person and engineer.”
Throughout her undergraduate career, Frank has been chosen for many other prestigious honors, including receiving the Goddard Keynote Scholarship and Brooke Owens Fellowship, and being selected as a 20 Twenties Award winner by the Aviation Week Network.
Her next step? She’ll be attending the University of Colorado Boulder to pursue a dual-master’s degree in Bioastronautics and Engineering Management. While the journey is a long way from Purdue, Frank is taking her experiences with her into the next chapter of her work in human spaceflight.