BIG SKY, Mont. — This spring, Alan M. Didion, will be presenting a report at the IEEE Aerospace Conference in Big Sky, Mont. regarding his work on a mission concept to send a small spacecraft to Venus to detect seismic activity from orbit.

The IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology.

Didion is beginning his third year as a systems engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. He is a 2009 graduate of Wheeling Park High School, a 2013 graduate of West Virginia University with degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and a 2015 graduate of West Virginia University with a master’s of science in aerospace engineering. He is the son of Bobbie and Ron Didion of Elm Grove.