Anthony Pucciarella received the
2019 Engineer of the Year Award.

Pucciarella served as the director of operations for the UMD Unmanned Aircraft Test Site, and was a member of the UAS Transport Team that took part in a successful first flight of an unmanned aircraft delivering a donor kidney to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore for successful transplantation into a patient with kidney failure.

Pictured left to right: AIAA National Capital Section Chair David Brandt, AIAA NCS Engineer of the Year Award recipient Anthony Pucciarella, UMD UAS Test Site Director Matt Scassero, and UMD Department of Aerospace Engineering Chair Norman Wereley.

The Engineer of the Year Award is presented to a local AIAA member who has made a recent individual contribution to the application of scientific and mathematical principles leading to a significant accomplishment or event worthy of AIAA’s national or international recognition.