Air University researchers, educators earn AETC STEM honors
Six Air University researchers, educators and STEM contributors earned Air Education and Training Command-level honors in the 2026 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Awards. Their work reaches across research, engineering, education and outreach.
Five of the winners are from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The sixth is from Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base.
The work isn't the same, and that's part of the value.
"What stands out to me is the range of work being recognized," said Col. James Bowers, AFIT Acting Director and Chancellor. "These awards represent researchers, engineers and educators who are committed to solving the Joint Force's toughest technical challenges while forging warrior scholars through our academic programs. That's what AFIT provides the Department of War. We cultivate technical expertise, then deliver it to help Airmen address current operational needs and strengthen the Joint Force."
Capt. Guillermo A. Salcedo, AFIT/ENG, was named AETC's Outstanding Scientist/Engineer in the mid-career military category. Sean A. Gunther, AFIT/ENS, earned the Engineering Technician award, while AFIT's Human Digital Twin Ontology Team received the Outstanding Scientist/Engineer Team Award.
Daniel F. Koranek, AFIT/ENG, earned the Outstanding Science and Engineering Educator Award, and Lt. Col. Robert A. Bettinger, AFIT/ENY, received the Air Force Research and Development Award.
The five AFIT selections cover different disciplines, but they point toward the same question: How can technical knowledge help solve a problem for the warfighter?
New technology by itself doesn't answer that question. Someone has to understand it, test it, figure out where it falls short and determine whether it actually helps the force do something better.
The Human Digital Twin Ontology Team's work brings that idea into focus.
Today's systems don't always have a common way to understand the physical and cognitive condition of the person operating them. The AFIT team is developing a shared framework for representing that information digitally, laying groundwork for human digital twins that could eventually help track operator performance, fatigue and environmental stress across different systems and models.
The team is developing two ontologies, each representing human information in a different operational context, and combining what they have in common into a broader framework. The work builds on baseline standards from the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office Council and the Intelligence Community Chief Data Officer Council.
"Systems often operate with zero visibility into the operator's real-time physical or cognitive limits," said Capt. Cameron McGrath, AFIT/ENV. "We're establishing a shared understanding of the human and their digital counterpart that can span different tools, AI agents and engineering models."
The goal is eventually to allow systems to better account for the person operating them, giving warfighters and commanders better information about performance, fatigue, environmental stress and readiness.
Bettinger's work shows another way Air University research can connect with a problem the force is trying to solve.
His research focuses in part on operating beyond traditional near-Earth orbits. Bettinger co-authored a 350-page book on space situational awareness, navigation and communications architectures for multi-body environments, including cislunar space and Mars. The book will support two AFIT graduate courses in cislunar trajectory and mission design.
Those courses have evolved in response to Air Force Research Laboratory requirements. Bettinger and his students are now using higher-fidelity dynamics models to develop trajectory solutions for AFRL while preparing graduates to move into assignments involving cislunar mission planning and trajectory development.
The research extends beyond trajectory design. Bettinger received $500,000 in defense research grants supporting work in multi-body dynamics, cislunar trajectories, transforming satellite structures, rapid point-to-point cargo delivery and space-object conjunction analysis. The work supports AFRL efforts ranging from on-orbit trajectory and remote-sensing capabilities to reducing unnecessary collision-avoidance maneuvers that consume spacecraft propellant.
Bettinger also received two U.S. patents related to satellite payloads and structures. One uses cubic origami structures to compactly fold deployable arrays or mirror surfaces inside satellites. The other addresses satellite structures capable of articulation and transformation. His team is now extending that work toward large transforming truss structures for future on-orbit platforms.
The connection between the research and the classroom is deliberate. Bettinger has graduated eight master's students and currently works with five master's and two doctoral students. The same problems being studied for AFRL are helping prepare space professionals who may eventually work those problems in operational and technical assignments.
Getting a good idea out of research and into the hands of the force isn't just about moving faster. Someone still has to determine whether a new technology actually solves the problem it was built to address. Sometimes that means testing an idea and finding out the first answer wasn't the right one.
That's useful, too.
Air University's STEM work doesn't stop with advanced technical research.
At Maxwell, Maj. Joseph S. Kohan of Squadron Officer School was named AETC's Individual Outreach Volunteer for the STEM Outreach Award.
As aerospace education officer for Civil Air Patrol Squadron AL-032 at Maxwell, Kohan leads hands-on STEM programs for 60 cadets from Montgomery and communities across central Alabama. His work ranges from rocketry and aviation weather to flight planning and high-altitude balloon experiments.
For the Civil Air Patrol Joe Kittinger High-Altitude Balloon Challenge, Kohan spent 15 hours developing training and mentoring 24 cadets as they used the scientific method to design payloads capable of surviving conditions in the stratosphere. The Alabama CAP Wing commander also selected him to set up and develop a training program for a $9,000 aviation simulator supporting the wing's 25 pilots and 13 aircraft, while providing aviation ground training to Maxwell cadets.
For Kohan, the work is personal. His own path to the Air Force began in high school through Air Force Junior ROTC, where his aerospace science instructors helped set him on a path to the U.S. Air Force Academy and, eventually, pilot training.
"Without them, I do not think I would be where I am today," Kohan said. "I am trying to return that favor to our current generation of cadets."
Kohan said his work with Civil Air Patrol cadets isn't about producing immediate results. It's about introducing STEM early enough to help shape where a young person may eventually go.
"It's about steady, intentional course adjustments," Kohan said. "Over time, those small nudges compound into exponential growth."
Taken together, the six winners give a snapshot of the range of work happening across Air University.
Some of it starts with a technical problem. Some starts in a classroom. Some begins years before an Airman ever has to make a decision with the knowledge being developed today.
The real test is whether any of it gets used.
Did the work help someone see a problem differently? Did it inform a decision? Did it improve readiness or give a warfighter another way to accomplish the mission?
Those questions matter more than the number of papers written, courses completed or awards received.
Getting research in front of operators, planners and decision-makers is one side of it. Bringing their problems back to the people who teach, study and research them is the other. That back-and-forth gives Air University researchers a clearer picture of what the force needs and gives the force another place to turn when the answer isn't obvious.
And the answer won't always be obvious.
Threats change. Technology changes. A problem can change before the force finishes solving it.
That puts a premium on people who can recognize the change, ask a better question and test a different answer.
The six AETC STEM winners are one snapshot of those people at work. Their accomplishments span research, engineering, education and outreach. What ties them together isn't the award. It's what their expertise can do next.
For Air University, that's where the recognition connects to the larger mission: forging expert joint warfighters and helping solve operational problems for the Joint Force.
All six Air University recipients now advance to compete at the Department of the Air Force level.
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