Caltech Awards Distinguished International Aerospace Honor to Lockheed Visionary

Aerospace engineer and executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Joanne Maguire is the 2010 recipient of the prestigious International von Kármán Wings Award for her sustained and visionary accomplishments in aerospace.

Maguire is renowned in the aerospace industry for her leadership in advanced-technology systems for national security, civil, and commercial markets, including projects on human space flight systems, communication satellites, strategic and missile defense systems, and interplanetary spacecraft. 

The von Kármán Wings Award acknowledges outstanding contributions by international innovators, leaders, and pioneers in aerospace and is presented by the Aerospace Historical Society, which is part of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at Caltech (GALCIT).  For the past 26 years, the society has been dedicated to the preservation of the history and achievements of aerospace.

"GALCIT is proud and privileged to be the home of the Aerospace Historical Society," says G. Ravi Ravichandran, chair of the Aerospace Historical Society, director of GALCIT, and the John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at Caltech. "It is an honor to give this award, named after the founding director of GALCIT and the founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to Joanne Maguire."

"Joanne's colleagues at Lockheed Martin are proud of her selection as the first woman recognized by the Aerospace Historical Society with this prestigious award," said Lockheed Martin's president and chief operating officer, Christopher E. Kubasik.  "She's a great leader in our company, an effective advocate for our industry, and an exemplary role model for those who choose careers in aerospace."

Maguire, one of the highest-ranking women at the world's largest global security company, is the first woman to receive the von Kármán Wings Award.  She has also been recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Industry" and in 2008 as one of the "Top 50 Women in Technology" by Corporate Board Member magazine.  She was also honored in 2008 by Girls Inc. for her achievements as a "leader and role model for young women."  Additionally, Maguire is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Maguire joined Lockheed in 2003 and assumed her current position in 2006.  Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company employs more than 17,000 people and generated more than $8.6 billion in sales for Lockheed Martin in 2009.

Ravichandran presented the International von Kármán Wings Award to Maguire at a gala banquet and awards ceremony on September 2 on the Caltech campus.

Previous recipients of the Wings Award include former president of India Abdul Kalam; chairman and CEO of the French space agency, Centre National d'Études Spatiales, Yannick d'Escatha; Northrop Grumman's chief technology officer, Alexis Livanos; director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Charles Elachi; Kent Kresa, former chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman and chairman of Caltech's Board of Trustees; Burt Rutan, aerospace entrepreneur and founder, president, and CEO of Scaled Composites; the "father of human-powered flight," aerospace pioneer Paul MacCready; former JPL director Edward Stone; and astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

For more information on the International von Kármán Wings Award, the Aerospace Historical Society, and on 2010 recipient Joanne Maguire, go to http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/ahs/program/index.html

For more about GALCIT, go to http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/

And for more information about Lockheed Martin, go to http://www.lockheedmartin.com/