Dr. Riccardo Bevilacqua Named Outstanding Researcher of the Year
Dr. Riccardo Bevilacqua, professor of Aerospace Engineering, is the 2024 recipient of the Abas Sivjee Outstanding Researcher of the Year Award. This award is conferred annually to one faculty member on Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach Campus in recognition of exceptional research activity.
“My passion for Embry-Riddle dates back to 2010, when I first visited its Daytona Beach Campus. Being able to contribute to its excellence and upward trajectory is a dream come true. The Aerospace Engineering Department’s chair, the College of Engineering’s dean, the university administration, my incredible students and, last but not least, my wife, made this achievement possible. One can only succeed where there is collegial, sincere and unwavering support, and this is how we operate at Embry-Riddle. My award is a shared award,” Bevilacqua said.
Bevilacqua is also the recipient of the 2023 College of Engineering Researcher of the Year Award. He serves as the director of the ADAMUS (or Advanced Autonomous Multiple Spacecraft) Lab, where he mentors five Ph.D. students and several M.S. and B.S. students. He is a Royal Aeronautical Society Fellow, an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Associate Fellow, an American Astronautical Society Fellow and a full member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He joined the Daytona Beach College of Engineering in 2021.
Over the past five years, Bevilacqua has published 26 journal papers and secured $2.7 million in external funding. He has received grants from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and NASA, and is a technical leader in spacecraft formation flight, space robotics and warhead/spacecraft fragment fly-out predictions. He has also been included in Elsevier’s top 2% of most-cited scientists for Aerospace Engineering. Outside of conducting research and teaching the next generation of engineers, Bevilacqua serves as the chair of the IAA conference on space situational awareness, which he founded in 2017. In 2024, Embry-Riddle hosted the conference at its Daytona Beach Campus.
Congratulations to Dr. Bevilacqua!