AFIT alum and adjunct faculty member Dr. Steven Rogers (M.S. Electrical Engineering, 1981) is a recipient of the 2021 Presidential Rank Award - Distinguished Senior Professional category by the Office of Personnel Management.

Distinguished rank recipients are recognized for sustained extraordinary accomplishment, and receive a cash award of 35 percent of their base salary. Only one percent of the career SES or SL/ST may receive this rank.

Rogers is the Senior Scientist for Automatic Target Recognition and Sensor Fusion at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He serves as the principal scientific authority and independent researcher in the field of multi-sensor automatic target recognition and sensor fusion.  He also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Information Technology within AFIT's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 established the Presidential Rank Awards Program to recognize a select group of career members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) for exceptional performance over an extended period of time. Later, the Rank Award statute was amended to extend eligibility to senior career employees with a sustained record of exceptional professional, technical, and/or scientific achievement recognized on a national or international level. Two categories of Presidential Rank Award are available: distinguished rank recipients and meritorious rank recipients.