The Professional Achievement Award is given annually at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) gala to recognize experienced mid-professionals who have made significant contributions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career fields and have served as role models for others.

Dr. Reginald Hobbs was a recipient of this award in 2015 for his remarkable achievements as a researcher and STEM educator.

He had over thirty years of industry experience and worked as an associate director for experimentation at the Army Research Laboratory, where he established the Network Science Research Laboratory to broaden network science research work by incorporating information, social, and telecommunications network capabilities into an experimentation environment.

Another recipient of this award in 2019 was Arik Brown of Northrop Grumman Corporation, who is a consulting system architect in mission systems.

Brown is an experienced mid-professional who has made significant advances in STEM career fields and has served as a role model for others. He was also named a Northrop Grumman Technical Fellow in 2018 and authored many technical publications.

He is an active STEM volunteer in his community and has earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s and doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Herman Moore, a computer scientist in the Information Technology Lab at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), was also honored with this award last year.

He is the leader and leading technical developer of the Army Facilities Components System project and provides direction and input to teams, sponsors, and customers to resolve technical solutions and enhance application features.

He advises engineers to identify their strengths and weaknesses and seek knowledge and wisdom from their peers and doctrine, where needed. With his technical capabilities and leadership experience at ERDC, he is always looking for opportunities to mentor junior scientists and develop himself to advance the mission.