Peter Carian, Eight Others Receive Top Aerospace Awards

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (9/24/01) -- Peter Carian has received the The Aerospace Corporation's highest award, the Trustees' Distinguished Achievement Award.

The award was presented by Dr. William F. Ballhaus Jr., president and chief executive officer, during an awards convocation at the corporate headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., September 20, 2001.

Also recognized were four other individuals and a team of four, who all received President's Achievement Awards for exceptional accomplishments.

Accepting these awards from Ballhaus were Thomas Oldenburg, Dr. Paul Rousseau, Dr. Karen Scott, Herbert Wintroub, and the team of Drs. Steven Beck, Robert Farley, Jerry Gelbwachs and John Wessel.

Carian was lauded "for sustained excellence in contributions to successful resolution of spacecraft and launch vehicle electronic system anomalies contributing to mission success for national security space."

He was recognized as the corporation's leading electrical and electronic circuit analyst and troubleshooter. His expertise in circuit and system analysis, problem solving, anomaly resolution, and operational workarounds have led to the success of numerous missions and averted the failures of others.

Carian's technical knowledge and analytical ability have garnered him a long series of "diving catches," having identified mission-critical circuit flaws on many vehicles -- some poised on the launch pad.

He has been instrumental in building the quick-reaction capabilities of the company's Electronics Design Lab to generate hardware test data for performance validation and anomaly resolution.

He has received numerous awards and commendations from Aerospace customers, including the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award from the Department of Defense and the National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) Gold Medal Award.

Thomas Oldenburg was recognized "for outstanding performance and essential contributions to United States national security space policy."

He is a primary advisor to the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Space, providing technical assistance and counsel related to remote sensing systems in the development of space system policy, international agreements, arms control and space cooperation with foreign governments.

Oldenburg frequently represents the company's Space Policy Directorate on panels and working groups and is called upon to participate in foreign delegations, chair interagency meetings, and draft space policy directives.

He was most recently designated as a principal advisor for the National Security Council's space policy coordinating committee, which works as a liaison across executive branch departments and agencies on space matters of broad national concern.

Dr. Paul Rousseau was recognized "for innovations in antenna measurement techniques in support of a critical NRO asset."

Rousseau has invented measurement techniques and processing algorithms that have significantly extended the state of the art in antenna measurement performance. His advancements have been applied to a critical NRO asset, with an estimated $5 million in cost savings.

His groundbreaking work centers on the innovative use of a near-field antenna range, which maps the radiation pattern of an antenna by employing a small probe to measure electromagnetic field strength over the antenna surface.

Rousseau has pushed this technology from its infancy to its application at a facility now used for NRO, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, civil, commercial, and research activities.

Dr. Karen Scott, an optical scientist, was recognized "for outstanding leadership and technical contributions in developing and testing NASA's Laboratory Nadir Science Window and the Window Observational Research Facility for the International Space Station."

Scott provides integral leadership and support on a variety of optics-related engineering and program activities for the Office of Earth Sciences and the Independent Assessment Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

She has played a pivotal role in developing a window of the highest optical quality ever flown on a crewed spacecraft -- the International Space Station's Nadir Science Window, located in NASA's space laboratory Destiny, launched Feb. 7, 2001.

She received NASA's prestigious Silver Snoopy Award this year for her contributions to shuttle and space station programs.

In addition, Scott continues to work with the space station team as a key advisor on on-orbit window issues, including calibration, operations and maintenance, as well as development and testing on the Window Operational Research Facility, scheduled for launch in 2002.

Herbert Wintroub was recognized "for sustained, outstanding contributions to the radio frequency and communication technologies used in national security space systems."

For more than 30 years, Wintroub has contributed significantly to the development and application of communication systems technologies for the Space and Missile Systems Center and for a variety of classified programs.

He has consistently provided leadership in the use of Aerospace's unique laboratory facilities and analytical capabilities to resolve critical technical issues.

In the 1970s he contributed to a highly successful government program to develop microwave and millimeter wave low-noise amplifiers and traveling-wave-tube amplifiers. Largely as a result of his efforts, the government customer realized the need to develop an industrial base to produce these critical components.

In the 1980s he provided technical leadership in applying an Air Force Weapons LaboratoryÐsupported investigation into the susceptibility of critical space systems to high-power microwave radiation.

In the 1990s Wintroub provided systems engineering leadership as well as direction in the application of a wideband communications test bed.

Drs. Steven Beck, Robert Farley, Jerry Gelbwachs and John Wessel were recognized "for the development and highly successful application of lidar techniques in support of the calibration and validation of sensors for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)."

Lidar techniques these team members identified and implemented enhanced significantly the accuracy and effectiveness of DMSP.

The Aerospace lidar measures atmospheric temperature and water vapor distributions.

The team's efforts have aided the warfighter by significantly contributing to the ground "truth" for DMSP sensors used in forecasting worldwide weather.

The team also designed and built a field-deployable, self-contained lidar system that can be flown anywhere a C-130 transport plane can land.

The team's work is also an important step toward implementation of space-based lidar systems.