Will Be Feted July 23rd
Dr. George H. Ebbs Jr., president of
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, will receive the 2005 Gen.
Lewis H. Brereton Award from the Florida state organization of the
Air Force Association on July 23 at the group's convention in Cocoa
Beach.
The Brereton award is presented annually to a Florida civilian
who has made significant contributions to the aerospace defense of
the United States. Ebbs, a patron of the AFA and a recent
presidential advisor to the group's Aerospace Education Foundation,
was nominated by the Brig. Gen. James R. McCarthy Chapter #397 of
Volusia and Flagler counties.
"Since his arrival at Embry-Riddle in 1998, Ebbs has
strengthened the university's long-standing commitment to the
aerospace industry and our nation's military," said Marguerite
Cummock, chapter president. "We're very pleased with the new degree
programs in Applied Meteorology and Safety Science and we're
excited about the proposed Embry-Riddle Research and Technology
Park."
Air Force ROTC now offers
scholarships in research meteorology at Embry-Riddle, making the
Applied Meteorology programs with their state-of-the-art Weather
Centers at the university's Daytona Beach and Prescott, AZ,
campuses even more attractive to students. The large and growing
Air Force ROTC units at Embry-Riddle's campuses total more than 700
cadets and are second only to the US Air Force Academy as a
university-based commissioning source of officers and pilots.
In the last few years, Ebbs has presided over three major
military and Air Force-related contracts worth a total of $57.2
million. In the first instance, the US Department of Defense
renewed Embry-Riddle's contract as the sole provider of
aviation-related degree programs to the US military in Europe.
Under the second contract, Embry-Riddle provides introductory
flight training at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to
cadets and lieutenants who will become Air Force pilots. In the
third major contract, Embry-Riddle is training Air Force, Air
National Guard, and international flight safety officers at the Air
Force Safety Center at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NM.
Ebbs is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Southeastern
States SATSLAB Consortium, a NASA initiative to create a small
aircraft transportation system modeled on the US interstate highway
system. Under his leadership, the FAA chose Embry-Riddle to lead
its General Aviation Center of Excellence, a partnership of
academia, industry, and government agencies dedicated to the
research and development of aviation-related technologies.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and serves on
the Board of Governors of the Wings Club of New York and on the
Associate Member Advisory Council of the National Business Aviation
Association.