Inaugural Anderson Scholarship Awarded to Kirk

The inaugural $1,000 John D. Anderson Scholarship in Aerospace Engineering has been awarded to aerospace engineering senior, Madeline Kirk. The winner was announced at a luncheon April 18th following a keynote lecture by Anderson and his family. Michael Gentry (junior) received an honorable mention in the competition.

Anderson, professor emeritus and a previous department chair, retired from the faculty in 1999. One of Anderson’s contributions to his students was the establishment of the John Anderson Scholarship in Aerospace Engineering to assist and encourage undergraduate students majoring in aerospace engineering. The competition consisted of a paper submission and poster presentation on aerospace engineering research performed at the Clark School.

The Anderson Scholarship Committee consisted of Anderson, Mrs. Sarah-Allen Anderson, Prof. Alison Flatau, Prof. Norman Wereley, and Department of Aerospace Engineering Chair Darryll Pines.

Kirk’s paper and poster, "Design and Development of a Docking System for a Small Free-Flying Robotic Vehicle," described research she has performed at the Space System's Laboratory (SSL) under the direction of Prof. David Akin, director of the SSL.

To learn more about the Great Expectations campaign and how you can make a difference through scholarships, please contact us.

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John D. Anderson, Jr., professor emeritus (AE), graduated from the University of Florida with High Honors and a B.S. in aeronautical engineering in 1959, and from The Ohio State University with a Ph.D. in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in 1966. He served as a lieutenant and task scientist at Wright Field in Dayton (1959-1962), as chief of the Hypersonics Group at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in White Oak, Md. (1966-1973), and became chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland in 1973.

After 1980 he served as professor of aerospace engineering at UM, being designated a Distinguished Scholar/Teacher in 1982. In addition, in 1993 he was made a full faculty member of the Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science, and in 1996 an affiliate member of the History Department at the University of Maryland. In 1996, he became the Glenn L. Martin Distinguished Professor in Aerospace Engineering. He retired from the University in 1999, and was appointed Professor Emeritus. He is currently the Curator for Aerodynamics at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Anderson continues to teach undergraduate and graduate level courses at the Clark School, and gives lectures, seminars, and short courses at institutions domestically and abroad.

Anderson has published nine books, some in multiple editions, in the areas of aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, airplane performance, hypersonics, high-temperature gas dynamics, the history of aerodynamics and the history of aeronautical engineering. He is the author of more than 120 papers in radiative gas dynamics, re-entry aerothermodynamics, gas dynamic and chemical lasers, computational fluid dynamics, applied aerodynamics, hypersonic flow, and the history of aeronautics. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Published April 21, 2008