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Director Dennis K. Moore Associate Director Dennis K. Brown Assistant Directors Julie Flory Michael O. Garvey William G. Gilroy

Celeste Volz Ford, founder and chief executive officer of Stellar Solutions, Inc., will deliver the first talk in the University of Notre Dame's Distinguished Engineering Lecture Series for the 2001-02 academic year. Her presentation, titled "Engineer to EntrepreneurŠIt Isn't All Rocket Science," is scheduled for 12:50 p.m. Oct. 12 (Friday) in the DeBartolo Hall auditorium.

An aerospace engineering graduate of Notre Dame, Ford also holds a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University and completed the Executive Program for Growing Companies at the Stanford University School of Business.

She launched Stellar Solutions in 1995 and under her guidance it has become a recognized leader in the aerospace field, participating in critically important government and commercial satellite programs in the United States and abroad.

In 1998 Ford established the Stellar Solutions Foundation, which supports community-based organizations and charities, and last year she founded Stellar Ventures, a venture investing and incubating activity focused on early-stage technology development and market applications.

Ford began her career as a guidance and control engineer for Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) in 1978. She left COMSAT to become a project manager at the Aerospace Corporation, where her work with NASA on the space shuttle led to her recognition as "Woman of the Year" in 1984. Ford then joined Scitor Corporation, where she successfully started and grew a satellite launch business area. She left Scitor in 1995 to form Stellar Solutions.

Well known in the aerospace industry, Ford has served on a variety of congressional committees and panels in both the aerospace and emerging business arenas. A leader in professional and civic organizations, she is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, the United States Space Foundation, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and she serves on the board of directors of the California Space and Technology Alliance. She also is a member of Notre Dame's College of Engineering Advisory Council.

Ford has received many honors to date, including the 2001 Working Woman Entrepreneurial Excellence Award for General Excellence; the "Outstanding Woman of 2000," presented by the American Business Women's Association Bay Area Council as part of the 21s Century Dynamic Women Awards; the "President's Award" from the National Association of Women Business Owners in 1999 and the "Woman's Award of Achievement" from Notre Dame's College of Engineering in 1997.

The Distinguished Engineering Lecture Series exposes students to engineers who have achieved at the highest levels in their specific fields. Four speakers from various disciplines will be featured throughout the academic year to giver students an overview of the diverse opportunities available in engineering and to provide them with a better understanding of the role of engineering in society and the impact they, as engineers, can have.