FAA Recognizes Shauck For Excellence In Aviation, As Baylor Announces Institute
by Judy Long
WACO, Texas -- Dr. Max Shauck, professor of aviation sciences and director of Baylor University's newly established Institute for Air Science, was honored with the prestigious 2001 Federal Aviation Administration Excellence in Aviation Award during a ceremony Feb. 15 at Baylor's hangar at the TSTC airport.
Dr. Herman Rediess, FAA director of aviation research in Washington, D.C., presented the award to Shauck in recognition of his research and development of a renewable clean-burning aviation fuel. Also at the ceremony, Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. announced the establishment of the Baylor Institute for Air Science (BIAS), which will encompass the department of aviation sciences and the Renewable Aviation Fuels Development Center.
FAA annually awards the highly competitive Excellence in Aviation designation to individuals and/or institutions in recognition of significant aviation-related research efforts currently benefiting the aviation community.
"For more than three decades, Dr. Shauck has supported the FAA, the aviation community and the nation's aviation goals through his applied aviation research activities and ongoing academic work," said Jane Garvey, FAA administrator. "Working with government, academia and industry, he has made valuable contributions to discovering alternative fuels for this nation's general aviation fleet."
Working with industry and the FAA, Shauck is involved in critical environmental research that is helping to reduce harmful emissions through the use of renewable clean burning aviation fuels. His research has led to the development of:
environmentally compatible fuels in aviation,
certification programs for aircraft using alternative renewable, non-fossil fuels,
the use of instrumented aircraft powered by renewable fuels to monitor air pollution, and
a university curriculum for the scientist-pilot using aviation studies and flight training to motivate students to a higher level of interest in math and sciences.
The Baylor Institute for Air Science was established because of the highly interdisciplinary nature of Baylor's aviation program. "The aviation sciences program initially trained airline pilots, but we have shifted to training scientist-pilots," Shauck said. "Our program includes aviation, development of alternative fuels, engine testing and flight testing, as well as certification and analysis of pollution, which requires meteorology, and transport and diffusion.
"We also work with other countries and other universities and bring in speakers for symposia, as an institute would do. This complicated mixture of activities doesn't fit well in a traditional department," Shauck said.
Shauck received his flight instruction from the U.S. Navy and earned his doctorate in mathematics from Tulane University. A licensed flight instructor, he is trained in aerial acrobatics and has logged more than 13,000 hours in flight time.
He began modifying aircraft to fly on ethanol in 1980 and made the first flight on ethanol in February 1981. In 1989, he and his wife, Grazia Zanin, completed the first flight across the Atlantic in an ethanol-powered aircraft, a 6,000-mile flight from Waco to Paris, for which he received the Harmon Trophy in 1991. The Harmon Trophy is aviation's most prestigious award, received in the past by aviation greats, such as Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Chuck Yeager.
Shauck has conducted numerous research projects and written many articles and papers on his air pollution and alternative fuels research.
To find out more about the Excellence in Aviation award or Baylor Institute for Air Science, contact the Institute at (254) 710-3563 or e-mail Shauck at Max_Shauck@baylor.edu.