Technology leaders from across GE gathered at GE Research in New York to recognize recipients of the Edison, Edison Pioneer and Women in Technology awards. Three GE Additive employees were among the winners. These prestigious awards recognize employees for their technical contributions, customer impact, dedication, and leadership. While their backgrounds vary, the 2019 awards winners are leaders and role models within their businesses and many are recognized experts within their respective fields.


Edison Award

The Edison Award, beginning in 2003, is named after GE’s company founder, Thomas Edison, and recognizes technical excellence, customer impact, and organizational citizenship by individuals with at least 20 years of experience. Each year, GE employees nominate colleagues demonstrating the traits associated with the high standards for this award category. Edison honorees drive breakthrough and revolutionary innovations that will have significant future impact. They are role models for customer centricity that positively influence GE’s technical community. GE Additive’s Gregg Wilson is the Edison Award winner.

Gregg is a Principal Engineer and GE Additive charter employee currently serving as the principal engineer for additive design. He is a founding member of GE Additive AddWorks, the business’s external consulting offering. Gregg started his GE career in 1985 as part of the GE Aviation Edison Engineering Development Program, initially focusing on the design of large structural components. While with GE Aviation, Gregg worked on the external design and aircraft integration of multiple commercial and military engines and was a key member of the external design system. Gregg led advanced externals, producing the first ever composite brackets and starting the basis of the additive heat exchanger team. He was also a key member of the a-CT7 program, which formed the foundation of the additive structural design of the T901 and catalyst front frames. Gregg holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics from The Ohio State University.  


Edison Pioneer Award

Since 2011 GE has recognized the technical, customer, and organizational contributions of individuals with at least 10 years of experience. This group of honorees actively identifies current business challenges and creatively formulates solutions. They demonstrate breadth and depth of knowledge and drive customer connections. Edison Pioneer recipients demonstrate technical leadership and stewardship in GE’s businesses. Aigbedion “Dion” Akwara, a principal engineer at GE Additive, is this year’s Edison Pioneer Award winner.

Dion is responsible for guiding design teams during the development of new additive machines and applications. He led many of the first customer consulting engagements for GE Additive AddWorks, the business’s external consulting offering and has helped several customers take giant leaps in their additive design and manufacturing competences. Dion assists in the development of early-career engineers and hosts technical reviews in a way that promotes sharing and collaboration across teams. Prior to joining GE Additive, Dion worked on the mechanical design of GE Aviation’s flying test platform to support commercial aircraft engine FAA certification. He also spent more than six years as a hardware owner for several GE Aviation engine components. Dion joined GE Aviation in 2004 as part of the Edison Engineering Development Program. He holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.


Women in Technology

The GE Women in Technology Award was initiated in 2004 in recognition of the GE Women’s Network and our support of the Society of Women Engineers. This award recognizes early to mid-career women engineers across GE for their dedication and leadership. They are leaders in their technical, GE, and local communities. The honorees have tremendous technical impact for GE and are also outstanding leaders who mentor, lead, recruit, and help to develop other women in technology roles. Lisa Pastuschka, is GE Additive’s 2019 Women in Technology award recipient.

Lisa is a member of the materials team, developing optimized material printing parameters and resulting application properties for our laser additive products.  Lisa leverages her background in materials, photonics and optics to bring a deep physical, and therefore sustainable and scalable, understanding of what it takes to consolidate metal powder into solid metal using direct metal laser melting.  Lisa always prioritizes customer support and developing customer-specific solutions while keeping up with rigorous demands to grow our materials catalog for our business.  She took on an industry-wide issue of microcracking in maraging steels and developed actionable solutions to position us well in the market.  Lisa always contributes with her technical expertise to ensure business needs are addressed robustly.  Her unique combination of organizational, business, and technical knowledge continuously develops both strong team and customer relationships.