OREANDA-NEWS. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) engineers were recognized for their significant engineering contributions during the 61st annual Engineers' Council honors and awards banquets held during National Engineers Week in late February in Universal City and in Palm Beach, Florida.

The Engineers' Council is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the art and science of engineering.

This year, Northrop Grumman's Chris Hernandez, vice president, research, technology and advanced design, Aerospace Systems, received the Jack Northrop Spirit of Innovation Award, recognizing his individual technical contributions that inspire innovation and advance the progress of the aerospace industry.

"Northrop Grumman is a company driven by innovation," said Stuart Linsky, vice president, engineering and global product development, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "We are proud of our innovative accomplishments that our engineering teams have delivered on some of the world's hardest problems; advancing human discovery and preserving freedom and national security. We appreciate the esteemed Engineers' Council for its recognition of the important roles of our Northrop Grumman engineers in pushing past limits to protect and advance our nation."

"These dedicated engineers and scientists accomplish amazing feats every day and enable products that we could only dream about before," said Sarah Willoughby, vice president, western region engineering, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. "I am extremely proud of the way that these deserving honorees innovate and collaborate to produce advanced mission solutions for our customers."

Northrop Grumman employees who received the Engineers' Council Future Technology Leader Award are:

  • Benjamin Naravage for outstanding contributions in guidance, navigation and control on the X-47B Autonomous Aerial Refueling Program
  • Margy Villa for innovation in inertial sensing engineering

Northrop Grumman employees who received the Outstanding Engineering Achievement Merit Award are:

  • Spencer Johnson for modeling and analysis of the electronic packaging of sensors and systems
  • Steven Kim for contributions in the field of fiber optics
  • Derek Nelson for engineering team leadership supporting all phases of a key proposal
  • Sarah Ostapchuk for program leadership of an integrated functional capability effort and the company's Triton program
  • Andrew Spencer for the development, implementation and evaluation of model-based embedded software for safety-critical inertial navigation and pointing systems
  • Michael Bauman for his work on airborne network global information gateway interface to relocate the beyond line of sight ground station for the Joint Stars fleet
  • Salah Din for a world record achieved with the highest power Gallium Nitride Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (GaN MMIC) power amplifier ever produced at Ka-band, establishing a new standard of performance achieved by a single MMIC

Northrop Grumman employees receiving Distinguished Engineering Achievement Awards are:

  • Pablo Borruel for revolutionary low-cost software architecture development for integrated open system avionics
  • Tom Varty for inertial system and software design, real-time model-based software architecture, and development of high performance inertial sensor mechanizations

Additionally, the following Northrop Grumman-led teams were honored with Distinguished Engineering Project Achievement Awards:

  • H-1 Helicopter's mission computer operational flight program software
  • Modular navigator software development
  • MQ-8C Fire Scout flight test
  • Open mission systems  demonstration on the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber
  • X-47B Navy Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS-D) autonomous aerial refueling demonstration
  • Force Level Execution (FLEX-15)
  • E-2D Advanced Hawkeye wet outer wing panel design

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide.