Congratulations to doctoral students Charlie Kelly and Akihisa Shimazu, who won the “Future of Electric Propulsion: A Young Visionary Paper Competition" at this year's International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC) in Atlanta, GA. Their paper was selected on the basis of the rigor of the technical content, clarity and style of presentation, as well as the vision of the work. The IEPC is the premier international forum for spacecraft primes, hardware developers, government researchers, academic scholars, and students in the field of electric propulsion. Young visionaries promote novel ideas using a unique combination of technical knowledge, foresight, and articulation.

The students' prize-winning paper was titled, "Revolutionizing Orbit Insertion with Magnetoshell Aerocapture." In addition to a $1,000 cash prize, they were invited to give a plenary talk at the conference. They also developed an outstanding video for the competition.

Aki and Charlie work for Dr. Justin Little in the A&A Plasma Dynamics Laboratory.