AAE welcomes Interim Head

Event Date: July 1, 2009
AAE is pleased to announce that Professor Kathleen C. Howell has agreed to serve as Interim Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The search committee continues to make good progress and looks forward to a successful conclusion of the search in the near future.

The School of Aeronautics and Astronautics is pleased to announce that Professor Kathleen C. Howell has agreed to serve as Interim Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The search committee continues to make good progress and looks forward to a successful conclusion of the search in the near future. Kathleen's appointment begins July 1, 2009 and will end either as soon as a new head has been appointed and is in place or on December 31, 2009.

We extend our congratulations to Tom Farris as he moves to Rutgers University to serve as Dean of the School of Engineering and thank him for his excellent leadership of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and his service to the College and wish him all the best at Rutgers.

Kathleen Connor Howell is presently the Hsu Lo Professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University; she has been a member of the faculty at Purdue since 1982. In that capacity, she maintains an active research program that includes technical publications in the areas of spacecraft trajectory design and optimization as well as maneuver strategies for transfers and on-orbit operations. She has received various awards related to her research program including the Dirk Brouwer Award from the American Astronautical Society. Professor Howell also accepted the Breakwell Award at the Astrodynamics Symposium of the International Astronautical Congress and gave the Memorial Lecture at the 2007 IAF Congress in Hyderabad, India. Currently the Editor-in-Chief of the AAS Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Professor Howell previously served as Managing Editor for the journal. She has been a member of the AIAA Astrodynamics Technical Committee, the Astrodynamics Committee of the International Astronautical Federation, and is currently a member of the AAS Space Flight Mechanics Technical Committee. Professor Howell earned her BS degree in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University; her MS and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical Sciences are from Stanford University