A&A Quick Facts

The University of Washington’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics offers the only aerospace degree program in the Pacific Northwest, a region whose aerospace industry has been a major contributor to the technological development, economic vitality and the security of the United States.

Undergraduate Enrollment & Achievements

Undergraduate enrollment 2008
111
women
underepresented minorities
16%
4%
BSAA degrees awarded 2008
38
  • 2008 International Astronautical Federation Congress Best Undergraduate Paper Award
  • 2009 Mary Gates Scholarships

Graduate Enrollment & Achievements

Graduate enrollment 2008
152
women
underepresented minorities
13%
8%
MSAA degrees awarded 2008
30
MAE degrees awarded 2008
6
PhD degrees awarded 2008
6
  • 2009 Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Fellowship
  • 2009 UW Graduate School Top Scholar Awards
  • 2009 Department of Energy Computational Graduate Research Fellowship
  • 2009 AIAA Infotech @ Aerospace Best Student Paper Award

Faculty

  • 19 core tenured and tenure-track faculty and 3 research faculty
  • 6 faculty adjunct with other UW Engineering and science departments
  • 21 affiliate faculty representing industry and outside research institutions
  • 6 post-doctoral research associates

FY 2008 Annual Operating Budget

Pie Chart FY 2008 Funding: Grants & Contracts: 66% - 6.8mil, State Appropriations: 21% - $2.15mil, Gifts & Endowments: 7% - $679K, Commercial Testing: 6% - $645K

Quick History

  • Boeing Wind Tunnel (now the Aerodynamics Laboratory) built in 1917 at UW.
  • UW starts one of the first Aeronautical Engineering departments in the nation in 1929, one of seven originally established with the help of the Guggenheim Fund for the Advancement of Aeronautics.
  • Founding faculty: Fred S. Eastman,  Everett O. Eastwood, Frederick K. Kirsten, John W. Miller.
  • Kirsten Wind Tunnel (also known as UWAL) built in 1936; formal testing begins in 1939 with the North American AT-6 "Texan."
  • "Astronautics" added to department name in 1961.
  • NASA grants $1.5 million in 1966 to build new Aerospace Research. Laboratory (now AERB). Building dedicated in 1970.
  • Redmond Plasma Physics Laboratory established in 1992.