AE Alumni Board Funds First Endowed AE Fellowship

Aerospace Engineering at Illinois is pleased to announce that full funding has now been achieved for the Aerospace Engineering Alumni Advisory Board Fellowship, the department’s first endowed graduate fellowship.

"The Department is tremendously grateful for the remarkable dedication and generosity of the Alumni Board,” said AE Interim Department Head Philippe Geubelle. “This graduate fellowship, the first one to be fully endowed in the AE Department, will allow us year after year to keep recruiting and supporting top quality graduate students who will make tremendous contributions to the educational and research missions of the Department.”

 “This generous gift will further strengthen the bond between the AE Department and the members of the Alumni Board,” Geubelle continued. “I am looking forward to introducing the first fellowship recipient at the 2012 Alumni Advisory Board meeting this fall.”

AE alumni board members joined forces starting in the Summer of 2009 to raise the $150,000 needed to fully fund the fellowship. Lockheed Martin Corporation also donated $10,000 toward the effort. The board’s intent was to aid the Department in recruiting and sponsoring top graduate students to work with faculty in education and research programs. The fellowship initially will yield about $6,000 annually to be used toward graduate student support.

“This student would be a strong contributor in one of our three major research areas: aerodynamics and propulsion; mechanics and materials; and controls and dynamical systems,” according to a letter distributed among board members. “His or her work would lead to important discoveries with associated publications in top journals and presentations at major national and international conferences. Fellowships like this serve to strengthen the department’s reputation and attract other top students and faculty to our department.”

Geubelle expects the first fellowship recipient to be announced at the AE Awards Banquet in April.

Alumni board President Michael Miller congratulated his fellow board members. “Not only did our Illini football team beat UCLA in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, but the AE Alumni Advisory Board Fellowship Challenge has met its pledge goal of $150K,” Miller said. “Thank you all for your support of the AE department and rising to meet this challenge.”