WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Joanne M. Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, was formally inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in Washington, D.C. ceremonies Sunday.

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

Maguire's citation recognizes her for "individual and team leadership of successful space programs." She becomes one of only 2,290 U.S. members and 202 foreign associates elected to the NAE since its founding in 1964.

Maguire, also an officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT), has led Space Systems Company since 2006. The company employs more than 15,000 people and generated more than $8 billion in sales for Lockheed Martin in 2010. Space Systems Company has major locations in Sunnyvale, Calif., Denver, Colo., Newtown, Penn., and Huntsville, Ala.

Under her leadership the company provides a broad array of advanced-technology systems for national security, civil, and commercial customers.  Chief products include human space flight systems; a full range of remote sensing, navigation, meteorological, and communications satellites; strategic and missile defense systems; space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft.

Maguire serves on the board of directors for United Launch Alliance, a Lockheed Martin joint venture, and is on the board of Lockheed Martin UK, which oversees the Corporation's interests in Great Britain.  

She actively supports several non-profit organizations: chairing the Advisory Council for Rocky Mountain USO, which provides men and women in uniform with morale, welfare, and recreational services; and serving on the boards of  the Space Foundation, which advocates space activities, supports space professionals, and promotes science, technology, engineering, and math education; and of INROADS, whose mission is to place talented underserved youth in business and industry, and prepare them for leadership. Maguire is also a member of the advisory council for the Denver School of Science & Technology, a free, open-enrollment, college preparatory charter school with a science and technology focus.

She is the first female to receive the prestigious International von Karman Wings Award presented by the California Institute of Technology in 2010 for her visionary accomplishments in space, and also was honored with UCLA's Alumni Achievement Award in 2010. She has been selected numerous times by Fortune magazine to its annual list of "50 Most Powerful Women in Business."  In 2009, she received the Society of Women Engineers' Upward Mobility Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions in aerospace engineering and for pioneering work in technology and diversity management.

She earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Michigan State University and a master's degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Maguire also completed the executive program in management at UCLA's Anderson School of Management and the Harvard Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security.  She is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and received a presidential appointment as a full member/academician of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Contact: Charles Manor, Lockheed Martin Space Systems
408/742-3397, or charles.manor@lmco.com

SOURCE Lockheed Martin