ORLANDO, Fla. — A Sidney High School graduate has been honored by NASA and ASQ for his contributions to both agencies.
Timothy C. Adams, son of Alga “Barney” Adams, 312 W. Russell Road, Sidney, and the late Reba Adams, and a 1968 graduate of Sidney High School said, “Last year was a good year.”
Last summer, Adams received the Exceptional Achievement Medal from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for his work in mathematics and probabilistic simulation that described the uncertainty in the performance of an engineered system. For example, Adams’s work showed certain modifications to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center were not necessary to protect personnel during the assembly and test of a launch vehicle and spacecraft. This analysis saved approximately $50 million by avoiding unnecessary building modifications. The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world.
“I was surprised when I received the award,” said Adams. “Roger E. Mathews, my supervisor in Kennedy Space Center’s Engineering and Technology Directorate nominated me for the award. I know that many hurdles of approval must be jumped” before the award is given.
This is Adams’s second medal with the first, the Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal, being awarded in 2010 for work in the area of quantitative Reliability Engineering. He was nominated for the first award by Chris Nagy, who retired as the chief safety engineer with the Kennedy Space Center’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.
Outside of NASA, Adams contributes his expertise to the American Society for Quality (ASQ). ASQ is a global organization with members in more than 140 countries that is dedicated to quality and performance improvement. In spring of 2014, Adams was selected as one of 12 team members to review the exam given around the world to certify reliability engineers. He has been a practicing Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) for more than 20 years.
In May 2015, Adams was a primary speaker at the 2015 ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement. His presentation was titled, “Metrics for Management.”
“My presentation at the American Society of Quality (ASQ) World Conference 2015 in May at Nashville, Tennessee, began with me responding to an invitation email note sent to all members around the world (ASQ is a global organization) for candidate topics,” said Adams. “I responded to this call by offering a topic and supporting essay that justified how this topic would provide meaningful ‘take aways’ for fee paying attendees.”
Adams said he has been working (studying and testing this topic) since graduate school. The conference review committee liked it.
“After I was informed I was selected as a presenter, the hard part began — writing to a particular format to a particular audience for a limited amount of time,” said Adams.
Adams has been with NASA since 1987 with his first 13 years with the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space in Houston, Texas. Prior to Texas, He was employed with the Monarch Machine Tool Company in Sidney. After graduating from Sidney High, Adams studied Mathematics at Trine University in Angola, Indiana and later completed studies at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Houston.
“Sidney is and remains a positive spot in my life,” said Adams.
Adams currently resides in Orlando, Florida. Anyone wishing to contact Adams can do so via email, [email protected].
