2017 Winner

President’s Award for National and State Leadership

College of Engineering; Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Ella Atkins is a professor of aerospace engineering and director of the Autonomous Aerospace Systems Lab. Atkins holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan. She previously served on the aerospace engineering faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is past chair of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee, an AIAA Associate Fellow, an IEEE senior member, a small public airport owner/operator (Shamrock Field, Brooklyn, MI) and a private pilot. She served on the National Academy’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board from 2011-2015 term, was a member of the Institute for Defense Analysis Defense Science Studies Group from 2012-2013, and recently served on an NRC committee to develop an autonomy research agenda for civil aviation.