2023
Outstanding Service Award
Colonel Rex R. Kiziah is a Permanent Professor and the Head of the Department of Physics, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He leads a 56-member department which educates, trains, and inspires more than 2,700 future Air Force officers annually across 35 physics and meteorology undergraduate courses. His team, with the involvement of cadet physics and engineering majors, also conducts research totaling $2.9M annually for the Air Force, Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other government agencies through the department’s Astrophysics Research Group and Observatory, Center for Physics Education Research, Center for Space Situational Awareness Research, Laser and Optics Research Center, and the Space Physics and Atmospheric Research Center.
Colonel Kiziah entered the Air Force in 1981 as a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has served as an Air Force science and technology officer, Associate Professor of Physics at the U.S. Air Force Academy, joint duty officer and deputy program manager within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force Research Laboratory Commander’s representative and staff member of the National Reconnaissance Office Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate, Combat Support and Joint Counterair Division Chief at Headquarters U.S. Air Force, and Materiel Group Director for Advanced Space Superiority of the Space Superiority Materiel Wing at Los Angeles Air Force Base. Prior to his current assignment, he was the Commander of the Phillips Research Site and Materiel Wing Director for the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate located at Kirtland Air Force Base.