Dr. Charles W. Clendening wins AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Award

Reston, Va. - The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Charles W. Clendening, ABL-NGAS Chief Scientist, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, Calif., has won the 2009 AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Award.

Clendening will receive the award at an awards luncheon at Noon on June 23, 2009, as part of the 39th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference, 19th AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference, 1st AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environments Conference, 27th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, 40th AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference, 41st AIAA Thermophysics Conference, and 4th AIAA CFD Drag Prediction Workshop, June 22 - 25 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, San Antonio, Texas.

Clendening won the award for his distinguished contributions to the development of scalable high energy chemical oxide-iodine lasers, as well as for his work in the application of high power laser technology. Clendening completed his undergraduate work at the Case Institute of Technology in 1968, and earned his doctorate in physics from Cornell University in 1974. He has worked in high energy laser development for over thirty years, first for the United States Air Force and then for TRW, which later became Northrop Grumman. He is a past recipient of two TRW Chairman Awards for Innovation, and a TRW Distinguished Patent award.

The AIAA Plasmadynamics and Laser Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the understanding of the physical properties and dynamic behavior of matter in the plasma state and lasers as related to need in aeronautics and astronautics.

Source: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics