Saturday, April 09, 2011

Great Canadians, Honored Appropriately

CASI logo.
Almost two years ago, in one of my earliest blog posts (the July 3rd, 2009 post titled "Historical Accounts and Comparisons of our Present Space Age with Other Era's") I mentioned author George Santayana, and quoted  from his book, the Life of Reason, that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Some of the people at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) must also have read Santayana, since they've always taken steps to appropriately honor past Canadian achievements through their CASI Senior Awards. The 2011 Senior Awards are scheduled for presentation at the gala dinner of the CASI AERO 2011 Conference, being held at the Delta Centre‐ville Hotel in Montreal, on April 27th.

Five awards will be presented at the gala:
Snowbird Ornithopter.
W.G. Habashi.
  • The McCurdy Award, presented for outstanding achievement in the science and creative aspects of engineering related to aeronautics and space research, will be awarded to Professor W.G. (Fred) Habashi for his contributions to computational flow dynamics (CFD) applications in gas turbine engines and to computations of in-flight phenomena. Habashi is well known for his research in this area, having previously been awarded with a life time achievement award from the CFD Society of Canada in July 2006.
CSA logo.
  • The Alouette Award , presented for outstanding contributions to advancement in Canadian space technology, applications, science or engineering, will be awarded to Dr. Allan B. Hollinger, for a series of outstanding contributions to Canadian space technology, applications and engineering during a career that spans more than 30 years as an expert and lead in developing Canada’s optical spacecraft payloads. Hollinger is associated with the Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science (now the Centre of Excellence for Earth and Environmental Technologies) as the Manager of the Electro‐Optics laboratory and has been with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) since 1995. He shared the Canadian Government Inventor Award in 2004, is co‐holder of seven patents and has contributed to 120 publications and technical reports.
  • The Roméo Vachon Award, presented for outstanding display of initiative, ingenuity and practical skills in the solution of a particular challenging problem or series of challenging problems in aeronautics and space activities in Canada, will be awarded to Major Dwight Bazinet for his work with the Augmented Surface Plot (ASP) tactical computer project, which fuses global positioning system data with traditional maps and radar information.
As mentioned in my March 28th, 2011 post "The Difference Between Aviation and Space" the space systems sector has a different set of planning and policy requirements than the aviation industry, but that doesn't mean we can't come together to celebrate excellence, no matter where we might find it.

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