ASNT Announces Two Faculty Grant Recipients

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) announces the recipients of two Faculty Grant award recognitions. The award encourages faculty members from engineering or science programs of United States universities and colleges to revise their existing courses or develop new courses to teach nondestructive testing/evaluation (NDT/NDE) by providing a financial grant.

Faculty Grants were awarded to Karen Johnson, PhD, and Esmeralda Vataj, PhD. 

Dr. Johnson is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator in the Aviation Technologies program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the Secretary/Treasurer and journal editor of the Aviation Technician Education Council. Dr. Johnson's undergraduate degree is in aviation maintenance technologies, and her graduate degrees are in curriculum and instruction with a focus on learning systems design and technology. Before working in academia, Dr. Johnson was a base mechanic on Bell 206-L1 helicopters for Air Evac Lifeteam, a provider of helicopter air ambulance services.  

Dr. Vatajis Director of First Year Physics in the Department of Physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). She develops, coordinates, and manages all aspects of the freshman curriculum and has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses on NDT. Before joining NJIT, Dr. Vataj worked as a researcher/lecturer at the Institute of Applied Nuclear Physics, University of Tirana (Albania), where she participated in regional and national NDT projects. Dr. Vataj obtained her doctorate in physics from the University of Tirana. 

“ASNT is focused on advancing the body of knowledge and practice of NDT,” said Neal J. Couture, CAE, ASNT Executive Director. “These faculty grants support the excellent work of Drs. Johnson and Vataj as they work to advance NDT education by enabling the implementation of innovative NDT courses.”

About ASNT

Serving more than 22 000 members and certificate holders worldwide, ASNT, based in Columbus, Ohio, is the largest technical society for NDT professionals. ASNT certification and standards programs, publications, conferences, education, membership, and professional development programs are the foundation for expanding awareness of advancements in NDT. Governed by a volunteer group of officers and directors, ASNT is organized by councils representing interests relating to certification, engineering, research, education, and section operations.