About the Award
The John D. Hodge Young Professional Award recognizes outstanding early-career aerospace professionals in the AIAA Niagara Frontier Section — encompassing western and central New York, eastern Ontario, and Quebec. The recipient is selected annually and honored at the Niagara Frontier Aviation and Space Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony.
Candidates must be under 35 years of age and reside or attend school within the section. Selection is based on professional and educational achievements (40%), professional background and society affiliations (30%), education and credentials (20%), and community involvement (10%). Download the nomination form here.
The award is named for John D. Hodge (1929–2021), who began his career on the Avro CF-105 Arrow in what is now the Niagara Frontier Section in Malton, Ontario, before joining NASA in 1959 at age 30. At NASA he became the second flight director after Chris Kraft, at age 34 directing the Blue Team on Mercury-Atlas 9, Gordon Cooper's record-breaking 34 hour, 22 orbit mission. John Hodge's profound impact on aerospace on both sides of the border before age 35 make his legacy the ideal namesake for the AIAA Niagara Frontier Section's Young Professional Award.
Recipients
Left to right: Walter Gordon (Section Chair), Dr. Fabien Royer, Tim Wadhams (Director, CUBRC Aerosciences Group)
Dr. Fabien Royer
Assistant Professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University
Dr. Royer leads the Cornell Space Structures Laboratory, where his research focuses on the next generation of large deployable structures for satellites and deep-space infrastructure, spanning instabilities in thin-shell structures, in-space manufacturing and assembly, and lightweight active structures. He holds a PhD in Space Engineering from Caltech and his engineering degree from ISAE-SUPAERO in France.
- 27 publications (~500 citations) in solid mechanics and space engineering; 3 patents
- Co-lead on a $35M US Space Force grant for nuclear-powered spacecraft structures
- AIAA Spacecraft Structures Technical Committee — Technical Discipline Chair (2025–present)
- Chair, Cornell SmallSat Mission Design School (2024–present)
- 2025 Dennis G. Shepherd Excellence in Teaching Award, Cornell Engineering
- 2021 William F. Ballhaus Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation, Caltech GALCIT
Left to right: Walter Gordon (Section Chair), Dr. Sadaf Sobhani, Andrew Chaves (NFS Honors & Awards Officer)
Dr. Sadaf Sobhani
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University
Dr. Sobhani leads an integrated experimental and computational research program at Cornell combining thermofluidics and manufacturing, focused on spacecraft thermal management and propulsion. She completed her PhD at Stanford University and post-doctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining Cornell in 2020.
- 2024 NASA Early Career Faculty Award — novel heat transfer fluids for spacecraft thermal control
- 2023 NASA Early Stage Innovations Award — ceramic additive manufacturing for spacecraft thermal management
- 2023 Air Force Research Lab Regional Network Prototyping Research Innovation Award — ceramic thruster chambers
- Co-inventor of novel electrospray thruster manufacturing method (US Patent App. 18/407,219)
- 25+ journal and conference publications; co-author of chapter in AIAA Volume on Human Missions to the Moon and Mars (2023)
- Founding member, Midwest and Northeast US Chapter of Interpore
Left to right: Dr. Eleonora Botta, Walter Gordon (Section Chair), Dr. John Crassidis (NFS Vice-Chair)
Dr. Eleonora Botta
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo
Dr. Botta's research focuses on active space debris removal using tethered nets — a critical challenge as orbital congestion approaches the threshold of Kessler Syndrome. Her 2017 paper on tether-net contact dynamics in the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics is considered seminal work in the field. She joined UB in 2019 after her PhD at McGill University and a postdoctoral fellowship there and at GlobVision.
- Two NSF grants as Principal Investigator (own share: $469,741)
- Vice-Chair (then Chair), AIAA Space Tethers Technical Committee
- 2023 Meyerson Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring, University at Buffalo
- 2023 SEAS Early Career Teacher of the Year Award, UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
- 15 journal papers; 32 conference papers; co-author of a space engineering textbook
- 2015 Amelia Earhart Fellowship, Zonta International