Spotlight: Skylar Buttler Aviation Week's 20 Twenties Winner 2026

Skylar Buttler, a 2026 20 Twenties winner from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, shares her journey in astrophysics and advice on perseverance in aerospace.

Butler's research encompasses planetary science, stellar evolution, and space weather. As principal investigator on a student internal grant, she models asteroid disruption dynamics to predict infrared dust band observations. Her additional projects include Bayesian stellar age determination using BASE-9 software, particle physics simulations of core collapse supernovae at laboratories affiliated with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and magnetospheric dynamics analysis using NASA mission data. She has presented her findings at major conferences, including the American Astronomical Society Meeting.

Beyond academia, Butler has interned at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Lockheed Martin, where she applied physics-based modeling to defense and aerospace systems. She intends to pursue a doctorate in astrophysics.

Nominations for the 2027, 20 Twenties awards are now open: https://fs2.formsite.com/AW-Events/y8fndk1m4f/index