A few weeks ago, 2001 ASMS grad David Kennedy spoke to fellow alum Lowery Duvall, who also graduated in 2001. Kennedy, who grew up in Mobile and graduated from Cumberland School of Law, is an attorney with Wright, Green, P.C., a Mobile law firm.  Kennedy is also the Alumni Representative on the ASMS Foundation Board of Directors.  Duvall works as an aerospace engineer for NASA designing our nation’s next generation of launch vehicles and spacecraft for space exploration.

David Kennedy: Where did you grow up?

LD: I grew up in Boaz, Alabama – a small, rural town in the foothills of Appalachia.  My hometown had a mere population of about 8,000 and was located about 50 miles away from the nearest larger cities of Huntsville and Birmingham.  Needless to say, my home community did not possess adequate resources to cater to the educational needs of a few advanced students.

DK: How did you hear about ASMS?

LD: My middle school enrichment teacher initially informed me about ASMS in the 7th grade.  She showed me a brochure about the school.  I was too young to consider ASMS seriously then.  But later that year, an older schoolmate applied and was accepted.  In 8th grade the following year, as I was preparing my curriculum for high school, I quickly became aware that my hometown’s high school offered very few opportunities for advanced students (i.e., there were no AP or IB classes).  Over the course of the following year, I started to consider ASMS more seriously. So I talked to the older student from my hometown who was attending ASMS.  Additionally, I met the school’s executive director at one of the regional recruiting sessions. He informed me that I happened to be in 9th grade as ASMS was recruiting its very first sophomore class for the following year.  That really sparked my interest.

DK: Please discuss your initial thoughts upon arriving at the school.

LD: With my humble background, it didn’t require much to impress me.  I definitely noticed the nice facilities, the impressive offering of classes, and the abundance of extracurricular activities.  However, the students and faculty left the greatest impression on me.  I was allowed to observe several classes, and I was enamored by the enthusiasm of both students and faculty.  The small class size really enabled teachers to be thorough and engage students individually.  And every teacher seemed friendly and passionate about his or her subjects.  The faculty captivated me and kindled my fascination. To this day, the faculty and fellow students formed many of my fondest memories and valued experiences.

DK: Please discuss decisions and work ethic that led to your success at ASMS.

LD: First and foremost, the decision to move 350 miles away from my hometown and family at the age of 14 was the most significant decision.  Such a significant decision at such a young age requires much personal growth, independence, and conviction.  Since I had the motivation to embark on that life-changing journey, the diligence to make the most of ASMS’s rare opportunities followed naturally.  I’ve always felt indebted to ASMS for the opportunities it provided me.  No one is entitled to such opportunities, and I always felt it was my obligation to honor that privilege by making the most of it.  This has always been a large factor in my motivation and work ethic, along with my interest and enthusiasm for my chosen profession.  I am eternally grateful to my teachers at ASMS for kindling my interests, establishing the foundations of my academic education, guiding my formulation of pertinent questions, teaching me to tackle problems logically & analytically, and fostering incredible personal growth by encouraging me to push my boundaries and limits.

DK: What type of college scholarship opportunities did you have?

LD: I set lofty goals for my education.  I had always known my primary interest was aerospace engineering and space exploration.  So I set my sights on the world’s top institutions of science and engineering.  By the end of my senior year, the opportunities provided by ASMS and my work had begun to help me reach those goals.  I was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Stanford University, and Cornell University, and all offered generous financial aid packages (Note: those universities refrain from using the term “scholarships,” which have been replaced by need-based financial aid for their students).  I was also awarded the presidential scholarship from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an academic scholarship from Auburn University.

DK: Where did you go to college? What was your degree?

LD: I earned my Bachelors of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.  It was a lot like a larger version of ASMS with its own “nerd” culture.  It simply felt like a continuation of my native element.  However, the institute definitely lived up to its reputation for intensity, difficulty, and competitiveness.  Without the preparation I received at ASMS, I would not have been afforded such an opportunity nor would I have been able to succeed in such a challenging university curriculum.  While I am now working full-time at NASA, I’m also taking graduate classes from the Georgia Institute of Technology as I work on my Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering. I am concentrating in studying dynamics and acoustics, as this is my technical discipline at work.

DK: What were your job options upon entering the work force?

LD: Since I wanted to stay in the aerospace industry, my options were primarily in military defense projects and civilian space exploration.  The struggling airline industry had left the civilian aircraft industry in decline.  I was fortunate that our nation’s space exploration agency was embarking on a new program just as I was entering the job market.  However, if I had chosen, I could have used my engineering knowledge and skills in a number of other industries, including civil engineering projects, the automotive industry, the energy sector, or the biomedical industries.

DK: Who do you work for? What do you do?

LD: I am an aerospace engineer for NASA designing our nation’s next generation of launch vehicles and spacecraft for space exploration.  Hopefully, these vehicles will soon replace the Space Shuttle and take passengers and larger payloads (such as robotic probes and scientific instruments) much further than the Space Shuttle can.  I suppose one could say that I’m a “rocket scientist.”  More specifically, I work on analyzing how the immense energies released by rocket engines and the violent aerodynamic turbulence “shake and break” our vehicles as they accelerate to extreme speeds through our atmosphere.  My work requires extensive knowledge from a diverse plethora of scientific fields including aerodynamics, structural & fluid dynamics (i.e., “resonances”), acoustics, dynamic data and signal processing, wave mechanics, solid mechanics, and computational/numerical methods for solving large mathematical models (namely finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics).

DK: Are you still interested in going to space? Is this an option?

LD: Sometimes I still entertain the idea of applying to NASA’s Astronaut Corps, but, for the moment, I am far too busy with the difficult and engaging work of designing NASA’s next generation of launch vehicles and spacecraft.  A project as vast in scope and challenging as a new space exploration program is a rare opportunity that usually only arises once in a generation.  I could not, in good conscience, allow this opportunity to pass.  The engineering experience and lessons learned are unique and invaluable, as few engineering projects involve this many (thousands of) engineers, such diverse scientific disciplines, and such vast financial resources.  I have to communicate with hundreds of people, be reasonably knowledgeable about dozens of fields of science & engineering, and my decisions have very important human safety ramifications & large financial consequences.  But maybe in the future, my engineering experiences will provide a foundation for applying to the Astronaut Corps and allow me to actually become a passenger of the rockets and spacecraft, which I helped to design.  Ad astra! (Latin for ”to the stars”)

DK: How vital is ASMS for Alabama?

LD: ASMS is quintessential to the future of Alabama.  It provides opportunities for motivated and capable students, who may live among the state’s significant rural and/or underprivileged populations.  Many of the school’s graduates stay or return to the state to bring knowledge, skills, and business essential to developing Alabama’s economy.  For those graduates that follow career paths leading them elsewhere, they serve as ambassadors for a state that often suffers from its historical ill-repute. ASMS graduates serve as examples that can help to erode the negative image of our state elsewhere, making Alabama a more attractive destination for high-tech industries and educated professionals.

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‘ASMS is quintessential to the future of Alabama.’