AESA President’s Message
My name is Vrej Agajanian. I have lived in Glendale for 36 years. I am married with 2 children. I have been a nightly T.V. host and commentator for 18 years, and a T.V. executive for the past 10 years. I am a California Registered Professional Engineer for 35 years.
I have been a member of numerous Armenian and non Armenian organizations. I was a board member and current member of Glendale Kiwanis Club, current board member of the Glendale Police Foundation, Auditor and member of DMEF, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Shushi School in Karabagh & Chairman of Armenian Society of Los Angeles. During my chairmanship and through my personal efforts I secured city funds to build this organization through my knowledge of city ordinances and my TV programs. As you see I have the know-how and experience to run an organization. I have been a member of AESA for quite a while but I have been active for the past 3.
For a long time I have been pondering that this organization did a wonderful job in the past. We have to be proud of the numerous accomplishments of AESA such as The Tree Project, The Science Olympiad, Environment project in Armenia, Cross Training of Armenia’s Engineers & Architects with U.S. Earth Q Safety Codes, & recently the Solar Symposium in Armenia. However, times change and we have to change as well to do things even better and make major changes to push our organization forward. I want each and every one of you to help and guide me with your advice for a better future for AESA. Generally, I would like to promise less and do more for every organization that I led. I never want to promise more and not to be able to deliver. Therefore, I have been thinking for a long time and I have come to the conclusion that I have to do things that are easily within my power and possible to accomplish, in other words, we have to have ambitious yet attainable goals:
1 – To add new members. If we bring new members, we bring new ideas to rejuvenate this organization;
2 – To promote AESA through my 2 TV stations;
3 – Through my TV stations and my own TV program, promote all AESA projects;
4 – To promote every project that a member of AESA is involved with especially young members in order to encourage other young professionals to get AESA rank & file;
5 – To reintroduce past presidents to the Armenian community for them to be ambassadors for our organization;
6 – To connect with other non Armenian engineering societies to learn about their policies & programs to do joint projects;
7 – Promote projects to help bring funds to our organization;
8 – Encouragement of IT projects to be performed in Armenia;
9 –We have find and learn about past participants of the Science Olympiad and those who have received scholarships and see how they can help our organization.
Vrej Agajanian,
AESA President 2017
OUR FUTURE
We as the AESA know that our community’s future depends entirely on the next generation of engineers and scientists. In 2015, the Young Professionals Committee was created to build a stronger connection to the youth and bridge the expertise of our organization with the ambitious minds of tomorrow’s professionals.
Learn more about the Young Professionals Committee here.
Dr. Hagop Panossian recalls that the nucleus for creating AESA started first as a dream during his early years in college. He wished for a worldwide Armenian scientific organization with the objective of creating venues for all engineers, scientists and industrialists of Armenian descent so that they might network, interact and help one another. The organization would include all Armenians under its wings, those from Armenia and the rest of the world.
During the late seventies, Dr. Panossian met 
with his friend, Dr. Stepan Simonian, in UCLA. They discussed the idea of a worldwide Armenian scientific organization to which Simonian expressed his great excitement. Panossian also presented the concept to the late Professor George Adomian who was a well-known mathematician and professor at the University of Georgia, in Atlanta. Panossian was further encouraged by the Professor’s enthusiasm. Upon this, Dr. Panossian and his wife Ani compiled a list of engineers and scientists from all around the world. They sent letters expressing the intent of forming an all Armenian engineering and scientific organization and received numerous positive responses but, of course, not without some negative ones as well.
During one of Professor Adomian’s visits to Los Angeles, Panossian with the help of Stepan Simonian and Misak Apelian contacted nearly 40 Armenian engineers and scientists and organized the first and official founding meeting on June 30, 1983. The founding meeting was held in the Castaways restaurant in Burbank and was attended by 23 people, they are:
Hagop Panossian, Stepan Simonian, Misak Apelian, Khachig Demirjian, Raffi Ohanian, Hrair Jabaghchourian, Varoujan Demirjian, Emil Maghakian, Robert Hartounian, Zaven Guiragossian, Asadour Hadjian, Zohrab Bedrossian, Abraham Bouyadjian, Varoujan Bedoyan, Hagop Bedikian, Alex Grigorian, Harutiun Surmenian, Ara Chutjian, Souren Bouickians, George Adomian, Ed Boyajian, George Mutafian and Vanagan Tatevosian.
The actual name “Armenian Engineers & Scientists of America” was coined at a later time during one of the succeeding meetings of the organization.
Later, in 1984, Panossian appointed an organizing committee consisting of Asadour Hadjian, Dr. Alex Grigorian, Misak Apelian, Dr. Stepan Simonian and Dr. Panossian himself. The organizing committee was tasked to develop the bylaws, obtain an official nonprofit status and organize the operating structure of AESA overall. Dr. Ara Chutjian, Harutiun Surmenian and Hagop Bedikian later joined the committee. The committee used the bylaws of the American Physical Society as a template, made some modifications to them and established a set of bylaws for AESA.