North Texas Section

2025-26 AIAA North Texas Section “Texy” Awards 
Who Will Win? Awards to be Announced at Event!
Scholarships will be announced ahead of event but will be awarded during event.
21 May 2026
UT Arlington
6pm
Dinner & Awards Program - $25 per person
Business Casual attire. Please try to purchase tickets by 18 March.

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Keynote: Lt. Gen. (ret.) Charles “CR” Davis  

Lessons still be learned, X-1 to F-47 and the Apollo Lunar Module to Artemis 4--More Questions than Answers
“CR” Davis (AF) is an experimental test pilot with L3Harris with 250+ test hours in the AT-802 and OA-1K Skyraider.  Conducting envelope expansion, engine airstarts, handling qualities and mission systems testing as L3Harris converts AT-802 into USAF’s OA-1K. Among other notable achievements, he was formerly the F-35 JSF Program Executive Officer.  

2026 Award Categories

• $500 High School Senior Scholarship Nominees
  - Aswin Saravanan, Coppell High School
  - Awab Badawi, Trinity High school
• $500 College Undergraduate Student Scholarship Nominees
  - Deeva Khanuja, UTA
  - Sharan Sathish, UNT
• Dr. Don Seath Award for Outstanding University Faculty
  - Dr. Liang Sun, Baylor University 
• Outstanding High School Educator Nominees
  - Mr. Bryan Harston, HEB Technology Center
  - Mr. Mark Kirk, Granbury High School
• High School Student of the Year Nominees
  - Saanvika Gandhari, Coppell High School
  - Eugenia Jin, Grapevine High School
• College Student of the Year Nominees
  - Nisrine Jawhari, Collin College
  - Sharan Sathish, UNT
  - Saarang Sivakumar, Embry Riddle Univ.
  - Austen Smith, UTA
• Dr. Jack Fairchild Award for Best AIAA North Texas College Event Nominees
  - UTA AIAA Student Branch - Southwest Aerospace Symposium co-host
  - UTD AIAA Student Branch - Annual Technical Presentation
• Dr. Don Wilson Award for AIAA North Texas Young Professional of the Year Nominees
  - Angela Buccio, Bell Textron
  - Alex Doriski, L3 Harris
• Outstanding Aerospace Achievement by a North Texas Individual Nominees
  - Jim Acree, DER Test Pilot – AT-1002
  - Stephen Atkins, UTA - 1^st Place 2026 AIAA Region IV Student Paper Conference, Graduate
• Outstanding Aerospace Achievement by a North Texas Team Nominees
  - UT Dallas Design-Build-Fly Team - 23rd out of 93 teams
  - FIRST Tech Challenge Team 18270 - Robotics World Championship runner up (out of the 366 teams)
  - Tarleton State University - 1^st Place AIAA Region IV Student Paper, Undergraduate Team
• Outstanding AIAA Support Awards
  - AIAA North Texas Student Member 
     > Mi Vo, UTD AIAA Student Branch President - leadership 
  - North Texas Young Professional Member
     > Yen Pham, UTA Grad - Luft Org App support
  - North Texas Professional Member 
      > Michael Filippidis, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control - AIAA HQ coordination
  - North Texas Company or Organization  
     > SETP Southwest Section - Southwest Aerospace Symposium co-host

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AIAA NTX Meetings
14 May - New Member Orientation, AIAA Zoom, 6-7pm

18 May - NTX Council Meeting, AIAA Zoom, 6-7pm

2026-27 AAIA North Texas Council Nominees
The list of nominees is provided below for your consideration. If you desire to run for office or advisory board, please reply by 26 May 2026.

Officers

Chair 
Mr. James Sergeant, LM/GD, VG (Ret.)
AIAA Associate Fellow 

Vice Chair 
Mr, Lucas Anderson, LMSW
AIAA Young Professional

Treasurer
Mr. Jon Dean, Pike Engineering
AIAA Member

Secretary
Mr. Dana Johnson, LM (Ret.)
AIAA Member

Advisory Board

Mr. Jim Acree
AIAA Senior Member
USN, FAA, American Airlines (retired); DER Test Pilot

Ms. Angela Buccio
AIAA Young Professional
Bell Textron

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Charles “CR” Davis   
AIAA Member
L3Harris Technologies, Inc.

Dr. Dennis Finley
AIAA Associate Fellow
Lockheed Martin (Ret.)

Mr. Mike Fox
AIAA Associate Fellow
NASA/GD/Lockheed Martin (Ret.)

Mr. Chris Hughes
AIAA Senior Member
Lockheed Martin

Ms. Deeva Khanuja
AIAA Student Member
UTA AIAA

Mr. Paul Park
AIAA Fellow
GD/LM, UTA Design Instructor (Ret.)

Dr. Liwei Zhang
AIAA Associate Fellow
UTA Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering