Aerospace Events

RAeS announces 2023 award winners

Posted 15 December 2023

The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) has announced the 2023 winners of the global aerospace community’s most prestigious and long-standing awards honouring achievement and innovation, who were celebrated at the Society’s Awards Ceremony, held in London yesterday evening.

Image courtesy RAeS

The RAeS awards recognise and celebrate individuals and teams who have made an exceptional contribution in the aerospace, aviation or space industries, whether it is for an outstanding achievement, a major technical innovation, exceptional leadership or for work that will further advance the industry.

Kerissa Khan MRAeS (above), President of the Royal Aeronautical Society said: “The Royal Aeronautical Society Honours, Medals and Awards are the most prestigious and long-standing recognition of innovation and excellence in aerospace, aviation and space globally. The RAeS has been honouring pioneers of flight since Wilbur and Orville Wright received the Society’s first Gold medal for completing the first successful powered heavier than air flight.

"This month, as we celebrate the 120th anniversary of this monumental achievement, we are especially proud to continue the annual tradition of honouring the most outstanding contributions from teams and individuals. The achievements of this year’s award winners showcase the ongoing ingenuity and commitment to excellence that exist across the breadth of our global aerospace, aviation and space industries. We are incredibly pleased to congratulate them on their remarkable accomplishments and success. "

Full list of 2023 honours, medals and awards

Individual Medals are awarded for contributions to the advancement of aerospace art, science and engineering.

Silver Medal

Professor Shahrokh Shahpar is awarded the Society’s Silver Medal for contributions to aero-engine Multi-Disciplinary Optimisation (MDO). He has contributed to automatic optimisation methods and pioneered MDO applications for many Rolls Royce products. He also leads many collaborative EU research programme work-packages.

Bronze Medal and Flight Simulation Medal

Professor Mark White is awarded both the Society’s Bronze Medal and the Flight Simulation Medal for his continued and sustained excellence in impactful flight simulation research and teaching with global reach.

Bronze Medal
Dr Richard Brown FRAeS is awarded the Society’s Bronze Medal for contributions over several decades to the understanding of rotorcraft aerodynamics. Richard is an internationally acknowledged expert in the aerodynamics of rotorcraft, his latest work is helping the eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) community to understand how some of the characteristics of their designs might interact with proposed regulations and influence the ability of this type of aircraft to operate effectively in the urban environment.

Team Medals are awarded for significant contributions to the advancement of aerospace art, science and engineering.

Silver Medal
The Zephyr Air Operations team is awarded the Society’s Silver Medal for a new solar Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) record and operating a High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) solar aircraft in international airspace.

The 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Voyager Team is awarded the Society’s Silver Medal for achieving the first flight of a large military aircraft without fossil fuels, and the first UK flight powered by SAF.

Bronze Medal
The Surrey Satellites Optical team is awarded the Society’s Bronze Medal for the design, development and manufacture of a revolutionary Mid-Wave Infra-Red (MWIR) Thermal Imager used on Satellite Vu's Pathfinder Satellite.

Society Specialist Awards are conferred on individuals or teams working in a formally recognised or otherwise well-established professional discipline. The awards recognise advances, innovation, excellence and long or meritorious service that has had a significant impact within the discipline in advancing aerospace art, science and engineering.

Roger Green Human Factors Medal
Mr Simon Gill is awarded the Society’s Roger Green Medal for contributions to Human Factors in aviation.

Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award
Mr Nick Shave FRAeS is awarded the Society’s Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award for leading the supply of mobile satellite communications to defence, security and intelligence organisations.

The Sir Ralph Robins Medal
Mr Simon Tutcher is awarded the Society’s Sir Ralph Robins Medal for service to the Engineering Leadership team within Leonardo Helicopters.

Young Persons’ Awards recognise individual achievement and promise.

Young Person’s Achievement Award
Ms Sarah Brougham is awarded the Society’s Young Persons’ Achievement Award in recognition of the creativeness and tenacity demonstrated to create and implement a Landing Gear reliability assessment tool.

Young Person’s Team Award
The Space Skills Alliance and Co-founders Dr Heidi Thiemann and Mr Joseph Dudley are awarded the Society’s Young Persons’ Achievement Award for providing guidance and thought leadership to the space industry.

Young Person’s Achievement Commendation
Ms Francesa Duhig is awarded the Society’s Young Person’s Achievement Commendation for outstanding leadership and technical aptitude on various programmes for Lockheed Martin.

Ms Yana Lishkova is awarded the Society’s Young Person’s Achievement Commendation for contributions to the engagement of young people in the aerospace sector.

Alan Marsh Award
Dr Christopher Dadswell is awarded the Society’s Alan Marsh Award for contributions to the development of flight simulation fidelity activities for the Horizon European "Rotorcraft Certification by Simulation" project.

Herbert le Sueur Award
Flt Lt George Doyle is awarded the Society’s Herbert le Sueur Award for contributions to maintenance practices for Royal Air Force survival equipment technicians, and policy changes to documentation standards.

N E Rowe Medal — 22 to 30 Age Group
Mr Morgan Taylor MEng, for his paper titled 'Can Quantum Computing Redefine Aerospace'.

NE Rowe Medal — Under 22 Age Group
Mr Nathan Westwick, for his paper title 'Rocket Nozzles, how they work and why they don't melt'.

N E Rowe Certificates of Merit
Ms Sara Ibrahim
Mr Christian Morris
Mr Adrien Pierrat
Ms Tilly Watts
Mr Alberto Carril

AeroTube 2023 Individual Winner – 18 and over Category
Mr Lahiru Dinuwan Appuhamy Galwatta Arachchige IEng AMRAeS for his video titled “Hydrogen Propulsion System Challenges | Are we really saving the Earth?”

AeroTube 2023 Individual Winner – Under 18 Category
Ms Liu Xiangyu for her video titled 'The Chinese Sun Wukong'.

AeroTube 2023 Team Winner
AHUK Apprentices (a small group of young apprentices from Airbus Helicopters UK ranging from the 2019 to the 2021 intakes) for their video titled 'Augmented Aeronautics | How AR is shaping the future of Aviation'.

2022 Written Paper Prizes - The Royal Aeronautical Society Written Paper Prizes are awarded annually for the best papers published in The Aeronautical Journal by the Society during the previous calendar year. The Society recognises the achievements, innovation and excellence of both individual and multiple authors.

Silver Award
Awarded to G. Padfield et al for the paper titled: ‘The potential impact of adverse aircraft-pilot couplings on the safety of tilt-rotor operations’

Awarded to J. Källström et al for the paper titled: ‘Design of simulation-based pilot training systems using machine learning agents’

Silver and Young Person’s Award
Awarded to C. Nasoulis et al for their paper titled ‘Multidisciplinary conceptual design for a hybrid-electric commuter aircraft’.

Bronze Award
Awarded to W. Johnson et al for their paper titled ‘NASA concept vehicles and the engineering of advanced air mobility aircraft’.

Awarded to J. McGuirk for his paper titled ‘Propulsive jet aerodynamics and aeroacoustics’

Awarded to A. Ören et al for his paper titled ‘The flight efficiency analysis on the Multi-Arrival Route Point Merge System’

Awarded to R. Macdonald et al for his paper titled ‘Future aircraft concepts and design methods’.

Young Person's
Awarded to R. Niemiec as lead author for the paper titled ‘Relative rotor phasing for multicopter vibratory load minimisation’.

Awarded to W. Memon et al for their paper titled ‘Helicopter Handling Qualities: A study in pilot control compensation’.

Journal of Aeronautical History Written Paper Prize is awarded annually to the paper published in the Journal of Aeronautical History during the preceding calendar year that is most likely to engage and excite the widest possible community of professional and other interest and thus to exemplify the best in terms of communicating aerospace history to inspire future developments.

Awarded to Tony Pilmer et al for their paper titled ‘The RAeS and the 1921 Cross-Channel Air Transport Crisis’.

How to apply
The Society’s Honours, Medals and Awards are open to everyone in and supporting the global aerospace community – from senior professionals to students and graduates. More information can be found at www.aerosociety.com/medalsandawards .