The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics announced that Dr. Philip Cassady of Snoqualmie has been selected to receive the 2015 Plasmadynamics and Lasers Award.

This award recognizes Cassady’s “distinguished contributions to the development of aero-optics and high power laser fluid dynamics.”

The award was presented at the AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition in Dallas, June 23. Cassady also gave a lecture to the members.

The AIAA is the largest aerospace professional society in the world, serving more than 30,000 members from 88 countries.

Cassady is a senior technical fellow (retired) from the Boeing Company in Seattle. At Boeing, he served chairman of the Boeing Technical Fellowship from 2003 to 2005. He was also elected to the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2003 and selected as a Fellow of the AIAA in 2004.

Cassady graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering and from the California Institute of Technology with a doctorate. He spent a year in Brussels, Belgium at the von Karman Institute studying with a NATO sponsored program.

He has traveled to Russia as a guest lecturer at  the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg.

Some of Cassady’s personal interests include hunting and fishing, trap shooting, operating his short wave radio, restoring vintage motorcycles and mentoring students interested in applying to MIT.

He is active in Snoqualmie Valley Alliance Church and has been on outreach trips to Guatemala, Turkey and China. He serves on the board of directors for the Upper Snoqualmie Valley Elk Management Group.

He and his wife Katherine live in Snoqualmie on Stillwater Farm. He has two sons, Sean and Edward and two grandchildren, Shannon and Johnathan.