Inducted At 53rd AAIA Sciences Meeting January 5

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. employees John Troeltzsch and Christopher Zeller have been selected as associate fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Troeltzsch and Zeller were inducted with other new associate fellows from around the world at the 53rd AIAA sciences meeting on January 5, 2015.

According to the AIAA, associate fellows are "those who have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work, or who have done original work of outstanding merit, or who have otherwise made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics."

Senior Program Manager Troeltzsch oversees NASA's Kepler/K2 mission for Ball and the B612/Ball Sentinel mission. He provided critical engineering for several of Ball's instruments built for the Hubble Space Telescope and served as mission manager for Hubble's corrective optics instrument. He was also the avionics lead for the cryogenic instruments on the Spitzer Space Telescope. He has received NASA Exceptional Public Service Medals for his work on the Spitzer and Kepler missions. He has been active in AIAA for more than 30 years. Troeltzsch earned his Bachelor and Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Principal Systems Engineer Zeller is Ball's requirements and verification lead for the NOAA/NASA Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft; and Ball's lead telecom engineer for NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission. He has been active in the AIAA since 2005 as chair of the Rocky Mountain section; chair of the Northern Colorado section; and chairman for programs. Zeller received a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado in 1999, and his bachelor's degree in Aeronautical/Astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. Zeller joined Ball in 2003 and was honored with the NASA Team Achievement Award for his work on the CloudSat mission in 2012.

To be selected for the grade of associate fellow, an individual must be an AIAA senior member with at least twelve years' professional experience, and be recommended by a minimum of three current associate fellows. Only two percent of the AIAA's 35,000-plus members are elected as associate fellows each year.

(Images provided by Ball Aerospace. Top: John Troeltzsch, Bottom: Christopher Zeller)

FMI: www.ballaerospace.com