2009 Women of Color Award Winners
PROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
ACHIEVEMENT – – Government
Government
Mei-Hwa Liao, PE
Chief Applied Structural Mechanics Branch
Amalia E. Barrios Engineering Directorate
Scientist, Atmospheric Propagation Branch
NASA Glenn Research Center
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center
BSc – civil engineering, National Cheng-Kung
Pacific
University, Taiwan
US Department of the Navy
MSc – structural engineering, University of
BSc – physics, California State University,
Detroit, Michigan
Fresno
MSc – electrical engineering, University of
California, San Diego
Mei-Hwa Liao’s work ethic and proven management capa-
bilities have resulted in many signifi cant achievements and
Over her 24- year career, Amalia Barrios has demonstrated an
important contributions in her 28-year career in support of
admirable mix of scientifi c rigor and engineering application
major NASA Glenn Research Center programs.
as she strives to achieve high standards in her research. She
She joined NASA Glenn in 1981 as a member of the turbo-
has played a major role in developing the Navy’s electromag-
machinery design section, after working at Cleveland Pneu-
netic assessment capabilities, which is in daily use around the
matic from 1977 to 1983, where she was responsible for the
fl eet and the Marine Corps.
structural-design analyses of landing gear for commercial and
Barrios is an outstanding role model for a new generation of
military aircraft.
scientists and engineers. In the early 1990s, the Navy wanted
Mei-Hwa Liao’s work at NASA has supported programs such as
to expand its capability to model surface-to-surface and sur-
the Space Station power module and solar arrays, and the de-
face-to-air radio-wave propagation over water to address the
sign of combustion experiments tested on the Space Station.
different propagation challenges over terrain and for airborne
systems. Barrios’ research initially developed a method to
Around 1986, when NASA Glenn’s Engineering Directorate
model propagation over land, in the presence of range-de-
was integrated with the Space Flight Directorate, she became
pendent atmospheric refractivity, which was fi elded to support
a member of the new structural-analysis branch.
naval operations in the Balkans the same decade.
Whether she is leading a structural-analysis team or supervis-
Subsequently, she undertook the task of combining the sepa-
ing others, Liao’s competency at leading projects and her
rate over-land and over-water propagation models into one.
engineering expertise have earned the respect of her peers.
The result was the advanced propagation model (APM), which
A key accomplishment pertains to the structural analysis
has become the standard atmospheric propagation model
performed on the chamber for the Combustion Module – 1
used by both the US military and the North Atlantic Treaty
Space Experiment. The combustion chamber was to be the
Organization.
fi rst pressure vessel opened and resealed in orbit inside the
Space Shuttle. Mei led development of the fracture-critical
The APM was submitted to the Navy’s Oceanographic and
analyses to prove that the metal combustion chamber and its
Atmospheric Master Library in 1998, where it underwent peer
quartz windows would maintain integrity and that it would be
review, independent verifi cation and validation, and, in 2003,
safe for the crew to complete the experiment.
was accredited by the chief of Naval Operations as a Navy
Standard. The APM has found widespread use in academia
Liao also is able to balance pushing to meet a schedule with
and in industry for system development, test, and evaluation.
pushing back to minimize the personal toll it takes on some-
one in her team. On a project to develop Ares-I-X, the new
Barrios has more than 43 publications in major trade journals
launch system to power human space fl ight which is sched-
such as Radio Science and IEEE Transcripts on Antennas and
uled for launch this year, Liao pushed to make sure managers
Propagation. One of the world’s most recognized leaders in
understood the hardship that the project’s aggressive schedule
the fi eld of electromagnetic (EM) propagation modeling, she
imposed on her team. While it is diffi cult to make changes in
has developed the fi rst hybrid ray optics/parabolic equation
a project of this kind, it is this type of commitment to people
propagation model, which can account for refractive and ter-
that makes Liao a good leader.
rain effects for surface and airborne platforms.
She is active in community groups, serving two terms as a
APM, and its graphical user interface: the advanced refractive
board member of the Taiwanese American Association of
effects prediction system (AREPS), are used worldwide by more
Greater Cleveland.
than 800 benefi ciaries in industry, academia, and the military.
During the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit Michigan, the Air Force
84th Radar Evaluation Squadron used the AREPS to determine
the areas of radar detection of low fl ying aircraft.
www.womenofcolor.net WOMENOFCOLOR | FALL 2009 41
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