2023 Awards Banquet June 27, 2023 | Museum of Flight
His citation, from Pat Remy, PNWAIAA Council:
Our 2023 Industry Engineer of the Year, Roger Myers, is an experienced aerospace leader with over 30 years of experience. A few things to know about Roger. First, and of course, foremost, is he’s been in AIAA for 43 years, according to National, this upcoming September 1st. Which means…he joined the beginning of his freshman year in aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan (I did the math…). And still here, at our Pacific Northwest AIAA awards banquet tonight.
After Michigan, Roger went straight east to Princeton for a PhD. From Princeton, next on his path from there to here, he went to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in the On-Board Propulsion Team leading research on advanced electric and chemical space propulsion technologies.
From NASA Glenn, Roger joined Aerojet Rocketdyne in 96. Over the first 10 years, he held positions as Executive Director, Systems and Technology Development and Director, Electric Propulsion and Space Electronics.
Then in 2006 he was named General Manager of Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Redmond Operations, and during his 4 years in this position, the In-Space Propulsion business doubled while earning excellent profits.
From there, he became Deputy Lead of Space and Launch Systems, then Executive Director of Electric Propulsion and Integrated Systems
Then, from 2013 to his retirement from Aerojet Rocketdyne in 2016, he was Executive Director of Advanced In-Space Programs, leading programs for next-generation space missions.
Since his retirement—if you really want to call it that—he’s been consulting to organizations on Space Systems and Technology, Strategy, Mission Architecture, Business and Program Management, Proposals and Education.
Along this path from AIAA freshman to tonight, he’s published over 100 papers on electric and chemical propulsion technology and in-space transportation architectures. And extended his aerospace leadership across an array of fronts:
- Since 2010, a fellow of AIAA; 30 years from that University of Michigan freshman signing up for the first time
- 2014 winner of the AIAA Wyld Propulsion Award
- He’s served on multiple committees for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, including being Co-chair of the consensus study on Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration.
- The Electric Rocket Propulsion Society (ERPS): President from 2013-2020 (7 years)
- On the Board of Directors
- 2017 winner of their Stuhlinger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Electric Propulsion
- The Washington State Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation (JCATI): Chair from 2013 to 2022 (9 years)
- The Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS): elected in 2012
- Which, for those of you not already familiar with it, is a working academy of 360 elected scientific and technical experts, focused on informing public policy and increasing the role of science in Washington state.
- He was WSAS President from 2020 to 2022, navigating the disruptions of the pandemic, increasing member engagement, further building the organization and expanding programs, including a symposium on decarbonizing aerospace, agriculture, IT and communications in Washington State…I’ll come back with more about WSAS in a moment
- The Museum of Flight—our hosts tonight. On the Board of Trustees since 2015. With us tonight as Roger’s guest is the Museum of Flight’s CEO, Matt Hayes.
- Elected to the National Academy of Engineering 2022
I mentioned the Washington State Academy of Sciences. As you may have seen in email from us, Roger is chair of their upcoming WSAS Symposium in August on sustainable aviation, connecting the dots on technology, public policy, infrastructure and workforce development that are required for reaching the emission reduction goals for Washington State. We’ll be sending out more email announcements on this to our AIAA membership, so watch for those or head on over to the WSAS website. It’s something you won’t want to miss. Also with us tonight as Roger’s guest is Donna Riordan, the Executive Director of WSAS, and Professor Kristi Morgansen, chair of the UW aeronautics and astronautics department, who with Roger, are leading this important symposium.
