Fort Worth, Texas, 21-DEC-00 -- Three Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company engineers represented the company as nominees for the 2001 Black Engineer of the Year Awards. Dr. Anthony Thornton, senior manager of strategy deployment, received the Black Engineer National Achievement Award in the Professional Achievement category; André Thornton, operations engineer, received a Special Recognition Award; and Bryant McKee, quality engineering specialist senior, was nominated for the Outstanding Technical Contribution category.

Anthony Thornton has assumed increasingly responsible and demanding positions in his 20 years of professional experience. Before his current role of senior manager for Strategy Deployment at LM Aero, Dr. Thornton was the senior research and development engineer for LM Aero - Palmdale and the director for the Diversity Leadership and Education Outreach Center for Sandia National Laboratories. He earned his doctorate in 1992 from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. He received a master’s in aerospace and mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1980 and a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering sciences from the University of Colorado in 1978.

André Thornton has shown proven and effective leadership skills as an engineer and has been selected for a division-level director succession plan. He began as an operations engineer on the F-22 program, and he is currently the project lead for a digital manufacturing technology initiative. He has been with LM Aero for two years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Virginia Military Institute in 1998. André Thornton is currently working on a master’s in business administration with a concentration on information systems from Georgia State University.

Bryant McKee has been involved in the defense aerospace industry for more than 14 years. His responsibilities have progressed to increasingly responsible positions including field service engineer, manufacturing technology senior engineer, quality assurance senior engineer and quality engineering specialist senior. He is a leading expert in development, implementation and management of state-of-the-art measurement technology critical to ensuring the stealth capabilities of the F-22 fighter. McKee received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tennessee State University in 1985. He is currently working toward his master’s degree in quality engineering.

The awards will be presented at the 15th annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference held Feb. 8-10 in Baltimore, Md. The conference offers seminars and workshops hosted by industry experts, Fortune 100 executives, authors and researchers. The awards ceremony will recognize the achievements of 14 African-American technology leaders.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company is a leader in design, development, systems integration, production and support of military aircraft. Its customers include the military services of the United States and allied countries throughout the world. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation.