AVIATION WEEK Bestows Lifetime Achievement Award on Caltech's Dr. Edward C. Stone

WASHINGTON, March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- AVIATION WEEK has named Dr. Edward C. Stone, David Morrisroe Professor of Physics and Vice Provost for Special Projects, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the winner of the Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 50th annual Laureate Awards. Other winners of the Laureate Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements in aviation, aerospace and defense, included:

* Aeronautics/Propulsion: Mark Lewis, Chief Scientist, U.S. Air Force * Business/General Aviation: Robert Agostino, Director of Flight Operations, Bombardier Business Aircraft * Commercial Air Transport: Capt. G.R. Gopinath, (Ret.), Managing Director, Air Deccan * IT/Electronics: Lt. Gen. Walter E. Buchanan III, (Ret.), U.S. Air Force * Military: Rear Admiral Guiseppe De Giorgi, Commander, Italian Maritime Forces * Operations: Team of AC-130 Gunship Operations - Lt. Col. Ted Fordyce, Commander, 16th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron, U.S. Air Force; Lt. Col. Robert Monroe, Commander, 4th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron, U.S. Air Force * Space: Stardust Comet Sample Return Mission Team - Don Brownlee, Stardust Principal Investigator, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington; Tom Duxbury, Stardust Project Manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Peter Tsou, Stardust Deputy Project Investigator, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Joseph Vellinga, Stardust Program Manager, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.

At the event, the Breitling Award for Aviation Heroism went to USCG, Lcdr. Walter L. Horne, Lcdr. William R. Timmons, AMT3 Karl A. Schickle, and AST3 Jon E. Houlberg for a harrowing, life-saving HH-60J rescue, conducted March 14, 2006. The "Tomorrow's Leader" awards were presented to U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen 1/C Douglas Marsh; U.S. Coast Guard Academy 1/C Nathaniel L. Souleret; U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet First Class Christopher A. Taylor; and U.S. Military Academy CDT Jeffrey Michael Rigney. All received a Breitling watch, and Aviation High School student Cristhian Godoy was honored with the Tomorrow's Leader $10,000 scholarship.

Lifetime Achievement award winner Dr. Stone has been a principal investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions and a co-investigator on five other NASA missions. Since 1972, he has served as the project scientist for the Voyager I and Voyager II deep-space probes. Following the launch in 1977 of the twin Voyager spacecraft, he coordinated the efforts of 11 teams of scientists in their studies of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Dr. Stone has been the recipient of many distinguished awards, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (in 1986 and 1996); the Aviation Week & Space Technology (AW&ST) Aerospace Laureate Award; the National Space Club Science Award; the American Philosophical Society Magellanic Award; the National Medal of Science Award from President Bush (1991), and the COSPAR Award for Outstanding Contribution to Space Science. In 1996, an asteroid (5841) was named after him.

At the event, AVIATION WEEK also honored Ford Motor Company President and CEO Alan R. Mulally as the 2006 Person of the Year. Prior to joining Ford in September 2006, Mulally served as executive vice president of The Boeing Company, and president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In that role, he was responsible for all of the company's commercial airplane programs and related services, which in 2005 generated record orders for new business and sales of more than $22.6 billion. The award was announced in a cover story released January 1 in AW&ST. The Person of the Year award, the second in AVIATION WEEK's 91-year history, recognizes the impact individuals have on the broader aviation, aerospace and defense community. Mulally was chosen from a field of candidates from around the world by AVIATION WEEK staff editors.

AVIATION WEEK'S annual Laureate Award event was held on March 20 at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, DC. It was conceived 50 years ago to recognize the extraordinary achievements of individuals and teams in aerospace, aviation and defense. Today, this black tie dinner and awards ceremony is the industry's premier event -- attracting scores of industry pioneers and thought leaders from around the world. Complete coverage of the Laureate Awards will be available in the April 2 issue of AW&ST.

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