(C) El Paso Matters.org
This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



1 year later: NSF suspension of UTEP-led aerospace grant remains mystery [1]

['Daniel Perez', 'More Daniel Perez', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']

Date: 2025-05-18

Mystery continues to surround a year-old decision by the National Science Foundation to suspend a prestigious UTEP-led research project that El Paso elected officials called “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” and could have meant up to $160 million for the region.

Decisions by University of Texas at El Paso leaders based on an in-house review of the grant proposal led to a demotion, a retirement, a resignation, mistrust within the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and hard feelings with at least one elected official.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, blamed university leaders for the demise of the grant that was supposed to build the region’s aerospace manufacturing capabilities, and for the demotion of Ahsan Choudhuri, who was associate vice president of UTEP’s Aerospace Center and the lead researcher of several multi-million dollar research grants.

The NSF announced Jan. 29, 2024, that it had awarded the grant to the UTEP-led Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine. Its goals were to support government, industry, nonprofits and academia in research and development of concepts, procedures and technologies to lift the region’s commercial prospects.

Choudhuri was the project’s principal investigator. Ryan Wicker, founder and executive director of the W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation, was the co-principal investigator. Three months after the announcement, the NSF suspended the award.

“As federal grants continue to be terminated or suspended around the country by the Trump administration, it is highly unlikely El Paso will get the same opportunity anytime soon,” Escobar wrote last week as part of an email statement to El Paso Matters.

Along with the suspended grant, the NSF and National Institutes of Health have terminated more than $21 million in UTEP research awards since March.

In April and May, the foundation canceled 13 grants, all but one tied to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects worth more than $17 million. The NIH stopped two grants in March and April. One involved equity and faculty recruitment. The other provided financial support to students pursuing biomedical degrees. Together, the NIH grants amounted to about $7.9 million. Of that, an estimated $4.5 million remained.

UTEP President Heather Wilson and Ahmad Itani, vice president for Research and Innovation, did not respond to specific submitted questions about the NSF grant, alternate project goals, related personnel changes, and a response to Escobar’s charges.

Instead, the university sent a statement about UTEP’s commitment to create opportunities for aerospace and advanced manufacturing in the region to include the recent opening of the $80 million Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center.

“We have full confidence in the experienced leadership of the Aerospace Center and W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation to continue building upon the success of our engineering centers,” the statement read.

An economic development setback

Two of the principal partners of the Paso Del Norte grant, the city and county of El Paso, said that the grant’s suspension was a brief setback in their economic development efforts.

City spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta said that the NSF’s decision does not directly affect the city’s vision to become a globally competitive innovation corridor. She said that the city maintains a strong commitment to advance the region’s defense, aerospace and advanced manufacturing strategy. She added that the NSF project was just one of several complementary efforts to build the region’s economy.

Those programs include an Advanced Manufacturing District near El Paso International Airport, which was built in part with almost $2.4 million from the city and funds from the $40 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant led by Choudhuri, the principal investigator, and Wicker, the co-principal investigator. Additionally, the city has submitted a $3 million request through Escobar’s office to expand support for early-stage manufacturing and aerospace companies.

“The city remains confident in the region’s momentum and is committed to working with local, state, federal and private partners to deliver high-quality jobs and long-term economic growth,” Cruz-Acosta said.

Michael McElroy, the county director of Planning and Development, said the grant suspension has delayed the building out of two additional hangars at the Fabens Airport, but has not altered the county’s plan to turn the airport into a regional asset that should attract businesses and general aviation operators.

McElroy said that the county has invested almost $19 million of its own funds and grants on projects and acquisitions that will make the airport more robust and functional.

Recent improvements include the installation of an Automated Weather Observing System, or AWOS, to provide continuous, real-time meteorological information, and a self-service fueling station. The county also continues to add utilities and amenities to three hangars, and recently purchased an additional hangar for future use. A few years ago, the county enacted some zoning control to protect the land around the airport.

The Fabens Airport in Fabens, Texas, is one of the resources potentially at issue in the suspension of the grant that the National Science Foundation had awarded to UTEP. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

“Whether the NSF grant came to fruition or not, the thrust of the build-out for the Fabens Airport was already decided on and committed to,” McElroy said. “It’s something we’re still proud of and pursuing right now.”

The UTEP-led project involved 18 partners from eight counties in West Texas and Southern New Mexico. Among the partners were the city and county of El Paso, Spaceport America, Workforce Solutions Borderplex, El Paso Community College, the Rio Grande Council of Governments, and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining.

What happened with the NSF grant?

The university announced the NSF’s decision May 6, 2024. On the same day, UTEP sent a letter to the NSF to address “incorrect statements” in the proposal. The letter stated that UTEP did not have leases for five hangars at the Fabens Airport located about 33 miles southeast of the university, or to have 8,000 acres of test range near the Lower Valley airport.

In a statement to El Paso Matters, Choudhuri’s attorney Bob Blumenfeld said that UTEP had approved the proposal, which had no meaningful flaws that should warrant the grant’s suspension.

Ahsan Choudhuri, former associate vice president of the UTEP Aerospace Center, right, and Ryan Wicker, director of the W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation stand in front of the Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center on campus in February 2024. (Courtesy UTEP Aerospace Center on Facebook)

The award was supposed to be suspended until the foundation completed its review, which could take months or years. A spokeswoman for the NSF’s Office of Inspector General said earlier this month that it could not confirm nor deny that there is or has been an investigation into the UTEP grant proposal.

At the time of the suspension announcement, UTEP also demoted Choudhuri, who remained on the faculty. By June 20, the university announced his permanent replacement as head of the Aerospace Center. Some elected leaders and faculty were frustrated by the institution’s methods and actions.

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, who with Escobar and former El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser expressed their frustrations with Wilson’s handling of the NSF situation a year ago, did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

Choudhuri and Wicker, tenured professors in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, chose not to comment for this story. Wicker announced his retirement the following November.

The two award-winning researchers accounted for 12%, or almost $36 million, of the university’s research expenditures during the past four fiscal years, according to UTEP numbers.

Within days of the January announcement of the NSF award, Itani sent Wicker and Choudhuri an email that requested changes to the proposal to give him a more prominent role.

In a Feb. 3 response to Itani, Wicker said the directives were meant to drive him and Choudhuri from the university. In a March 4 memo, the researchers shared that they found the requests “out of line with UTEP and academic practice.”

Jack Chessa, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, was department chair from 2018 to 2024, but resigned in November due to his inability to work with the new executive director of the Aerospace Center Shery Welsh, a 37-year veteran of federal service in aerospace science and engineering.

Chessa, who had no comment for this story, had complained months earlier that the ways Choudhuri was treated and Welsh was hired without faculty input had lowered the level of trust many of his department faculty had in college and university leaders.

In a counter move, the University of Texas System issued its own statement in May 2024 in support of Wilson and her decisions in regard to Choudhuri. The letter signed by UT System Chancellor James Milliken and UT System Board of Trustees Chairman Kevin Eltife stated that Wilson’s actions were in the best interest of the university.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2025/05/18/utep-nsf-grant-suspension-ahsan-choudhuri-heather-wilson/

Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/