AAE senior Paul Witsberger selected for 2016 Herbert F. Rogers Award

AAE senior Paul Witsberger is the recipient of the 2016 Herbert F. Rogers Award. The honor is given annually to a senior who is "deemed the most worthy and deserving as determined by her/his contributions to the growth of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in fostering engineering as an academic discipline."

AAE senior Paul Witsberger is the recipient of the 2016 Herbert F. Rogers Award. The honor is given annually to a senior who is “deemed the most worthy and deserving as determined by her/his contributions to the growth of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in fostering engineering as an academic discipline.” The winner is selected by the School's Awards Committee along with two student members.

"Most of my friends and classmates that I work with on a daily basis are outstanding, so it's humbling to be the one chosen to receive this award," said Paul. "It's also a great feeling to be acknowledged for all the hard work I've put in the last 4 years."

During his time as an undergraduate, Paul has been involved in many co-curricular activities. He was Outreach Chairman of the Purdue Chapter of AIAA in 2013-14 and went on to serve as the organization’s president for three semesters, beginning in Fall 2014. Paul also co-founded the Purdue Lunabotics team.

Paul is currently the Project Manager for the Purdue Hyperloop team, coordinating the efforts of more than 60 students from across the College of Engineering to compete in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. The team is one of 30 that was selected to build a pod and test it at the Hyperloop Test Track in California later this year.

Paul also took part in the AAE 450 senior design project, serving as the Mission Design team leader for Project Legacy. The project developed plans for a lunar base that would serve as a stepping stone for a human mission to Mars using the vision Dr. Buzz Aldrin outlined in his book “Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration.”

After graduating with a BS AAE this May, Paul will be continuing his graduate studies in AAE at Purdue. He will be part of Professor James Longuski's Advanced Astrodynamics Concepts (AAC) research group and will be pursuing a PhD in Astrodynamics. Paul says ultimately he would love to return to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he interned in Summer 2015, and work on a human mission to Mars or planetary exploration to the outer planets.