2025 Student Leaders and Honors Award Recipients - Michigan Aerospace Engineering

Each year, the Student Leaders and Honors Awards recognize students from across the University of Michigan and the College of Engineering for their leadership qualities and excellence in their fields of study. This year, our department featured numerous award winners as part of the 2025 cohort of awardees, please join us in congratulating the following award recipients.

Distinguished Academic Achievement – Undergraduate Award
This award is presented to an outstanding undergraduate student in each degree program within the College of Engineering who excels in areas including academic achievement, exemplary character, leadership in class and activities and potential for success in future endeavors. This year’s Aerospace Engineering awardee is senior Peter Belkin, who also has previously been presented the Isaac, Vera, Gayle, Karen and Carol Bagley Aerospace Engineering Undergraduate Fund.

“It was an honor to receive the Distinguished Academic Achievement Award for the Aerospace Department. I am very proud of both my academic and extracurricular work within the department, and I was thrilled to represent us at the honorary event.”

Belkin is currently completing his final term as a member of the board of Sigma Gamma Tau (SGT), the Aerospace Engineering Honor Society, after serving for two and a half years. This semester he also has been an Instructional Aid for AERO 423, “Computational Methods for Aerospace Engineering,” led by Professor Krzystof Fidkowski. In the future, Belkin plans on joining SpaceX this summer, 2025, as a graduate intern, before coming back to the University of Michigan Department of Aerospace Engineering to pursue his Masters through the SUGS program.

Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Prize For Distinguished Academic Achievement
Presented to an outstanding graduate student (Master’s or PhD) in each University of Michigan College of Engineering degree program, this award highlights students who excel in areas including active participation in research, leadership and academic performance (GPA). Congratulations to fifth-year Aerospace Engineering PhD student Alexander Coppeans who also previously received the 2025 AIAA Meshing Visualization and Computational Environments Best Student Paper Award at this year’s annual SciTech Conference.

“I am incredibly grateful to be recognized by the department and awarded the Eleanor A. Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement. Knowing the great work that goes on in the department by my peers makes it an even greater honor to be chosen. I am very thankful for my advisors, Professor Fidkowski and Professor Martins, the department, and the College of Engineering.”

Within the department, Coppeans recently defended his PhD thesis and stated that receiving this award validates all the hard work that went into his time at U-M. Once graduated, he hopes to continue to advance the aerospace industry through developments in computational fluid dynamics.

Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Prize For Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor
This award is presented to four outstanding graduate students (Master’s or PhD) from any engineering program, recognizing the efforts and accomplishments of GSIs who demonstrate extraordinary dedication and excellence in teaching. Congratulations to Alasdair Christison Gray who was presented this award in recognition of his efforts towards AERO 523, “Computational Fluid Dynamics I.”

“I’m very happy to have been awarded the Towner Prize for my work as the GSI for the computational fluid dynamics class. It’s very validating to have my hard work recognized and I hope the website I created can continue to be used and improved by future GSI’s for the class. I’d like to thank both Professor Viswanathan who taught the course, and Professor Fidkowski who allowed us to use the amazing course materials he’s created over the years.”

As GSI for the Computational Fluid Dynamics course, Gray’s focus was on teaching students how to simulate fluid flows on computers and providing them with important tools related to writing code. Here, he created a website that contained a series of code examples related to concepts taught in class that the students could edit and run in their browser. By developing a comprehensive course website, Gray allowed students to explore numerical methods hands-on, which helped improve their understanding of complex computational concepts.

Currently, Gray is planning on defending his PhD thesis at the end of May 2025 before continuing to work within the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) Lab as a research fellow.

The George M. Landes Prize for Technical Communication – First Year & Upper Division

These awards honor students/groups who have demonstrated excellence and creativity in both technical and presentation skills. The namesake of the award stands in honor of George M. Landes, a 1977 graduate of the Mechanical Engineering Department, who had been a student and an engineer that was committed to both excellence of technical work and excellence of communication.

Congratulations to dual Aerospace Engineering and Robotics sophomore Peter Celani, awarded the first year George M. Landes Prize for Technical Communication.

“I am very honored to be awarded the George M. Landes Prize for Technical Communication. I would like to thank my Engineering-100 professors and teammates for working with me to complete this excellent report.”

This past semester Celani joined the M-Fly multidisciplinary aircraft design student team on the computer vision and mechanical team, and is planning to work at a local aerospace firm next summer to gain essential skill and experience as an aerospace engineer.

Additionally, congratulations to Bryson DenUyl, Gary Gardella, Braeden Germundson, and Ben Wetzler, the recipients of the upper division George M. Landes Prize for Technical Communication. Together, the team’s paper was compiled out of their Aero 405 capstone project, in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Aerospace Propulsion Outreach Program (APOP) which challenged teams at 19 colleges to design a variable area jet engine nozzle. For the project, the group concluded their work with a working, although unoptimized, prototype, and a significant level of characterization data in their nozzle design.

Upon receiving the technical communication prize, Germundson commented, “I am very proud of my group to have received such recognition for our paper. We put a lot of time and effort into it, and I hope it’s just the start of the great strides my group and I make when it comes to technical communication. I also am extremely grateful for the assistance provided by Professor Smith, Professor Burcon, Mr. Marshal Thomas, and Mr. Josh Thomas, as well as the air force staff from the APOP program for helping us every step of the way.”

While the project is ongoing, Germundson and DenUyl graduated in December 2024 while Wetzler and Gardella are planning to graduate in the spring of 2025. With the completion of their 405 course, the team handed off their APOP project to a second team in Aero 405.