Meet our Leadership Team
President
Amanda Fordyce
Amanda is a junior in Aerospace Engineering. She holds the position of president and has been involved with AIAA for the past three years. Outside of class, she works in a CubeSat lab on mechanical design and testing for space instrumentation at Steward Observatory, and in her free time enjoys rock climbing.
Vice President
Matthew Banko
Matthew is a junior majoring in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in mathematics. In addition to his position as vice president, he works on the AIAA-sponsored senior design team, DBF, as structures co-lead. He currently interns at Tempronics, a local engineering firm. In his spare time, Matt enjoys climbing, hiking and camping. A master of fidgeting, Matt also solves Rubik’s cubes (but he’s not that good at it).
Treasurer
Jacob Padilla
Jacob is a junior studying Electrical and Computer Engineering, with minors in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Aerospace Engineering. He has interned with the OSIRIS-REx mission this past year doing hazard and data analysis. Jacob has been a member of AIAA for going on three years, and has been active in Beta Rockets and IREC.
Major-Events Coordinator
Jacklyn Higgs
Jackie is a senior in mechanical engineering with a minor in aerospace engineering. She has been involved in AIAA beta flyer projects for 2 ½ years and is now dabbling in beta rockets. She is a College of Engineering Ambassador and a member of SWE. She also does research for Dr. Little in shockwave boundary layer interaction and plays the oboe and English horn in the UA Philharmonic Orchestra.
SECRETARY
Matthew Johnson
Matt is a junior majoring in Aerospace Engineering. He is currently working for SpaceTREx at the University of Arizona with the UA NASA Space Grant Internship. In his free time he enjoys working out, playing sports, and hanging out with friends.
Social Chair
Petra Gee
Petra is a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a Computer Science Minor in-works. She has been involved in AIAA for about a year and a half and is in charge of the website and social media accounts. She is a new member of the IREC team and is excited to learn more about rocketry. In her (lacking) free time she is a part of the UA Roller Derby Team, climbs, and catches up on sleep.
Corporate Outreach
Nikhil Nagarajan
Nikhil is a sophomore majoring in optical engineering and has been a member of AIAA for two years. This summer, he interned at Lasertel as part of the laser diode design team, and is currently working to build a LIDAR system in a research lab on campus. In his free time, he watches football, basketball, or works on his cars.
Co-SAC Lead
Tommy Dailey
Tommy is a senior majoring in Engineering Management with a minor in Aerospace Engineering. He has been a member of AIAA since his freshman year. He has spent those years working on, and expanding, the IREC team. When he’s not working on rockets, he splits his time evenly between binge-watching Netflix and playing through video games.
Co-Sac Lead
Derek Bischoff
Derek is a senior majoring in Aerospace Engineering. He loves fire and fluid mechanics, so rocket engines are his jam and he’s the technical lead for big rocket projects. He is a desert rat/Tucson trashbag who’s a big fan of the desert and mountains. He’s very good at scrambling up rocks and horrible at resisting the urge to make awful jokes, so writing this bio was a mild struggle. He has also never broken a bone (nose doesn’t count) or been stung by a bee or a wasp.
Beta flyers leAD
Davis Payton
Davis is a sophomore from Portland, OR majoring in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace minor. As a second year member of AIAA, he looks forward to mentoring/specializing in Beta Flyers and joining future DBF competitions. Davis has worked as a summer intern for Ascentec Engineering and Van’s Aircraft, and he spent several years as a student builder/mentor with TeenFlight, participating in four Van’s Aircraft RV-12 airplane builds. He holds a private pilot license and enjoys cycling for the UA Cycling Team.
Co Beta Rocket Lead
Derek Gilbert
Derek is a sophomore majoring in Aerospace Engineering. He currently is one of the rocket leads for the club and has an interest in space and the vehicles that get us there. When not drowning in engineering classes, he tries to learn more about the world around him as well as playing games and playing the drums.
Co Beta Rocket Lead
James Hart
James is a junior with a major in Aersopace Engineering with a focus in Astronautics and is going for a math minor. In his free time he enjoys bowling and hits the gun range every now and then when the desert heat doesn’t cause spontaneous combustion.