NJIT Alumna, Faculty Earn Prestigious Engineering Award
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has bestowed on NJIT alumna General (retired) Ellen M. Pawlikowski the 2022 Arthur M. Bueche Award. Pawlikowski joins distinguished professor Louis Lanzerotti as the second Highlander to receive the award.
Established in 1982 by the NAE, the Arthur M. Bueche Award honors an engineer who has shown dedication in science and technology, as well as active involvement in determining U.S. science and technology policy, promoting technological development, and contributing to the enhancement of the relationship between industries, government, and universities.
The award was named in memory of Bueche – the top technical officer for General Electric Co., an advocate for science and technology adept at applying research to benefit society, and an adviser to universities, presidents and international organizations.
The award cites Pawlikowski’s exceptional leadership of the development of space systems for national security, management of innovative, all-domain aerospace systems and promoting diversity in engineering. Currently an independent consultant, Pawlikowski provides expertise on strategic planning, program management, logistics, and research and development.
Pawlikowski’s career has spanned a variety of technical management, leadership and staff positions. Only the third woman to achieve the rank of General in the U.S. Air Force, she commanded five times as a general officer, commanding the MILSATCOM Systems Wing, the AF element of the National Reconnaissance Office, AF Research Laboratory, the Space and Missile Systems Center, and Air force Materiel Command. She also served as the program director and program executive officer for several multibillion-dollar military-system acquisitions.
Dr. Louis Lanzerotti, an NJIT distinguished research professor of physics best known for shedding light on the space environment around Earth and its impact on hardware in space and critical infrastructure on the ground, received the 2017 Bueche Award for his “extraordinary impact on the engineering profession.”
Lanzerotti has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on several United States NASA interplanetary and planetary missions including ATS-1 and 3, IMP-4 and 5, Voyager 1 and 2, Ulysses, Galileo Orbiter and Entry Probe and Cassini. Lanzerotti also served as principal investigator with instruments on each of the two spacecraft in the NASA Van Allen Probes mission. Launched in August 2012, the mission explored Earth’s radiation belt to better understand hazardous space weather effects near Earth, and phenomena that could affect solar system exploration.
