Born: United States of America
Primarily active in: United States of America

1964 - 2010

Benton H. Lau was a NASA aerospace engineer who held a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. As a team leader in many rotorcraft research projects, Benton Lau received multiple NASA Group Achievement Awards.

In the Spring of 2008, Mr. Lau’s team of engineers and scientists completed the world’s first full-scale wind tunnel test of a smart-material actuated rotor technology (SMART) rotor. For this achievement, the team won the Society’s 2009 Howard Hughes Award and a NASA medal for Exceptional Achievement. He supported the AHS (now VFS) as a member of the Dynamics Technical Committee.

Mr. Lau passed away at age 46 on May 28, 2010, after a brief battle with cancer.