Released by the NAWC Weapons Division(WD) Public Affairs Office China Lake, Calif.--

Slight Revision: Please use this final release.

China Lake employee Thom Boggs has received the James H. Wyld Propulsion Award for his work in solid rocket technology — a career that spans 40 years. "I am honored to receive this award. I accept it on behalf of my many colleagues and co-workers," stated Boggs.

The American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) award is given to individuals for outstanding achievement in the development or application of rocket propulsion systems.

His peers formally recognized Boggs last month at the Joint Propulsion Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The AIAA, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Automotive Engineers and the American Society are sponsors of the conference.

Boggs’ contributions to the field included advancements in combustion and detonation, his ability to team military and civilian scientists on complex issues, and demonstrating exemplary leadership toward scientific research at the local, national, and international levels.

"I find it ironic that we give awards to individuals yet we don't work alone, we work in teams. I have been blessed to work with many outstanding people at China Lake and elsewhere," Boggs added.

He has published over 250 scientific papers, reports and book chapters on decomposition, ignition, deflagration, and detonation of ingredients, propellants and explosives.

Boggs, who holds two patents and seven disclosures under secrecy orders, has also pioneered many techniques and uses of cinephotomicrography and scanning electron microscopy for propellant and ingredient studies. His expertise is sought for performance/hazard trade-off studies, damaged propellant investigations, insensitive munitions characterizations, compositional effects, modeling, development of improved hazard testing protocols and studies to understand open burn, and open detonation for disposal of energetic materials.

He was program leader for the JSOW BLU-108 Hazard Assessment program, Boggs helped to establish the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Thiokol, and was part of a joint effort to develop propellants and explosives based on CL-20 ingredient.

He supported the Trident office as NAWC leader for the High Energy Propellant Safety (HEPS), Hazard Assessment of Rocket Propellants (HARP) programs and served on a Blue Ribbon Technical Panel on Hazards associated with Trident that resulted in the establishment of the Lockheed/NAWC Propellant Hazard Test and Analysis Program.

Boggs was head of the WD Combustion & Detonation Research Branch for 12 years and head of the Engineering Sciences Division for 16 years. In this later capacity he provided technical leadership for a group of approximately 40 scientists, engineers, technicians and support personnel. For AIAA, he served on the national Propellants and Combustion Technical Committee for five years, two of them as chairman

Other contributions include technical reviewer for the AIAA Journal, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Applied Mechanics Reviews, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Combustion and Flame, Combustion Science and Technology International Detonation Symposia, the 4th International Symposium on Special Topics in Chemical Propulsion, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and the National Sciences Foundation.

Boggs is currently serving served on the Defense Threat Reduction Agency(formerly the Defense Nuclear Agency) on the disposal of large strategic missile motors in Russia and the Ukraine.
####
Photo Cutline: (left) AIAA President Donald Richardson presented Thom Boggs the 2004 Wyld Propulsion Award for outstanding contributions to the field of solid rocket technology.