ANAHEIM, Calif., August 20, 2025 โ ATA Engineering congratulates Dr. S. Michael Spottswood, recipient of the 2025 Mary Baker Industry Achievement Award. This award was established by the ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound (TCVS) to honor the legacy of the late Dr. Mary Baker. In naming the award for Mary, whose incredible trailblazing career involved the founding of ATA Engineering over two decades ago, ASME/TCVS seeks to recognize engineering professionals in industry who exemplify her spirit of innovation, originality, and meaningful impact in their work. ATAโs president, Joshua Davis, has the honor of introducing Dr. Spottswoodโs keynote lecture and presentation of the award today, August 20, 2025, at the International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC-CIE) 2025.
About Dr. Spottswood
Dr. S. Michael Spottswood is a member of the senior technical staff of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Aerospace Systems Directorate (AFRL/RQ), at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and a Principal Aerospace Engineer in the Structural Sciences Center (SSC), where he leads a highly capable government, post-doctoral, and academic research team. As a long-serving member of the SSC, Dr. Spottswood has led numerous fundamental research to advanced development projects/programs and made lasting connections within the aerospace industry and contributed to the professional development of many individuals. He was also the technical manager for the first SSC-led academic collaborative centerโthe Midwest Structural Sciences Center at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaignโfrom 2006 to 2013.
The SSC aerothermoelastic research team led by Dr. Spottswood is well recognized for their research on reusable hypersonic structures, particularly the design and execution of complex experiments exploring deleterious structural behavior and then reconciling predictions and measurements. Dr. Spottswoodโs commitment to innovation and synchronous advancement of both analytic and experimental methods for the study of high-speed systems is one reason ASME/TCVS has recognized him with the Mary Baker Industry Achievement Award. Dr. Spottswood, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, was the first USAF recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE, 2010), and he has also received the 2015 AFRL Commanderโs Cup/Richard Neal Special Recognition Award, 2017 Courtland D. Perkins Award, and 2022 S.D. Heron Award.
An Advocate for Government Collaboration with Small Business
For more than 15 years, ATA Engineering has had the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Spottswood and his research team on several projects to advance methods for predicting the complex coupled aerothermoelastic response of high-speed structures. Recent work culminated in a first-of-its-kind test campaign conducted at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) von Kรกrmรกn Facility Tunnel C (VKF-C) employing a compliant, reusable test article that exhibited sufficient structural deformation to observe aerothermoelastic coupling under relevant hypersonic flight conditions. The existence of such unique datasets is thanks to Dr. Spottswoodโs leadership and technical oversight in pioneering both computational analysis and experimental methods to gain new insight into the complex phenomena of high-speed flight. As a result of this collaboration, ATA has been able to validate and improve computational codes, such as the companyโs Multiphysics Engine, so that they are available for use on real-world systems. As the national focus turns toward development of high-speed systems, Dr. Spottswood and the SSC community are positioned to be a national asset in overcoming technical design challenges.
ATA Engineering congratulates Dr. Spottswood on this well-earned recognition and extends our sincere appreciation for his impactful contributions to the engineering community.
Learn more about the Mary Baker Industry Achievement award here.
