NASA FELLOW WILL SHARE HIS WISDOMT.

Byline: Daily News

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - NASA Dryden Flight Research Center aerospace engineer Trong Bui will share NASA engineering technology at two universities following his selection as a 2005 NASA Administrator's Fellowship Program Fellow.

Bui, an engineer in the Propulsion and Performance Branch of Dryden's Research Engineering Directorate, will teach for a year in the aerospace engineering department at California Polytechnic State University in Pomona.

He will also be an instructor with the California State University, Fresno, mechanical engineering department satellite office at the Lancaster University Center in Lancaster, then work with Lockheed Martin employees in Palmdale.

``I think this will be a terrific experience, and I will look forward to making the most of this opportunity at Cal Poly Pomona, Fresno State, and Lockheed Martin in the next two years,'' said Bui, who joined NASA in 1990 and has worked at Dryden since 1997. The fellowships are aimed at sharing information about NASA-developed technology, gaining insights for future NASA work, and improving the employees' own technical, research and management skills.

The fellows also familiarize college faculty and officials with NASA's mission and how to work with the space agency.

The NASA fellowship is designed to enhance teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at historically black colleges and universities, colleges that serve Latinos, tribal colleges and other institutions that serve ethnic minorities.

NASA employees selected as fellows spend approximately nine months teaching, conducting research in science or engineering fields, or assisting in an administrative capacity at colleges.

For the remaining nine to 13 months of the two-year fellowship, the fellows work in professional development assignments at NASA and other organizations.

Bui's professional development assignment will be working with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.'s Advanced Development Programs in Palmdale.

Bui will be Dryden's second fellowship recipient. Dryden electrical engineer Kurt Kloesel received a fellowship in 2000 and taught in the Department of Electrical Engineering/Center for Applied Radiation Research at Prairie View A&M in Texas.

Bui earned bachelor's and master's degrees in aeronautical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.

Bui was recently honored at Dryden with a ``One NASA Center Best'' award for his collaboration with industry, the military and other NASA centers on the Dryden aerospike rocket test that he directed in 2004.

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