The Mission of the Alexander Kartveli Association

The story of Alexander Kartveli and his contributions to aviation science and US-Georgian relations is one of courage, freedom and perseverance and speaks poignantly to events unfolding today in the area of democracy and human rights. 

Since 2014, we have embarked on a major preservation effort to collect rare footage, images and artifacts about Alexander Kartveli and publish this collection on our website and through other social media. To continue this work and to better garner support for the mission of the Association, the founding member, Richard Rubin, created a not for profit organization in Georgia (the Alexander Kartveli Association). Sadly, that entity has now been dissolved due to discriminatory effects from the recent Georgia’s Foreign Agents Law, but our work and mission continue from abroad.

From our inception we have generated public awareness about this prominent major aircraft designer and aeronautical engineer who has remained largely unknown for decades. The outreach campaign and preservation efforts are designed to:

•     Create and increase awareness of Kartveli's scientific achievements and personal life qualities that made his impact on the world stage so compelling;

•     Promote and underwrite, to the extent possible, academic scholarships at the high school or college level for Georgian students and professional internships in the areas of math, science, entrepreneurship and scientific innovation (STEM) as well as to work with corporate sponsors and supporters to achieve this goal; and,

•     Curate events related to the arts, sciences, education and general information that highlights Kartveli's and life and contribution to Georgian, U.S. and European relations.

Notable Achievements:

  • The Association together with the Georgian National Museum (GNM), curated an exhibit about Alexander Kartveli's life and accomplishments.  The exhibit was announced at the November 2014 Science Fair hosted by the GNM. It showcased real artifacts from Kartveli’s personal collection of model planes and sketches obtained though loan arrangements and gifts from museums in the United States. The exhibit opening was widely covered in the media. In attendance was Georgia's Prime Minister and Wesley Clarke, who symbolically represented the U.S. The exhibit greatly advanced awareness about Kartveli and the Association's mission and helped create the platform for all the Association's current programs that continue to unfold today.

  • We created awareness by publishing articles in the American Chamber of Commerce and International Chamber of Commerce magazines over the 2015 holiday season and in early 2016 in the  Investor.ge magazine.

  • In November 2016, Richard Rubin, Founding Member, was featured in Voice of America (Georgia) news documentary aired in Georgia as well as in public speaking engagements at Diaspora Days in mid 2016.

  • The creation of a learning center in the Georgian Embassy in DC to rollout a series of speakers events in the area of innovation, science and entrepreneurship. John Casani (Mission Director of Voyager)  from NASA came to speak at the Embassy as our key note speaker.

  • Sponsorship of “Charkulo” movie in late September 2017 that brought key members of NASA’s Voyager and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Mars missions to Georgia and which was sponsored by the US Embassy.  AKA sponsored and underwrote the cost for the movie called "The Song" last September made by NOVA  when John Casani and Robert Manning of NASA were awarded and honored on the 40th anniversary of the spacecaft's launch. The event in Georgia is on our blog and can be found here.

  • In the summer of 2019 The Kartveli Association was a sponsor of the International Space Development Conference where we discussed Kartveli and his contributions to space flight and Voyager.  The Conference is hosted by the National Space Society. The Association hosted 25 Georgian students at this STEM event as they performed and sang "Charkulo" from our Voyager space film documentary -- "The Song". The conference is the seminal event in the space industry and was attended by 2,000 participants.

  • In late 2022, in coordination with the University of Georgia, the Association launched a multi-year program to support students pursuing degrees in science, math, engineering and innovation and installed a major exhibit of Kartveli’s work and artifacts collected from museums and other sources in the United States.   This current school year, we underwrote a STEM conference held on the initiative of school students, in which 100 students and teachers from different regions of Georgia participated. The partners of the project were the University of Georgia and the Kartveli Association.  The three winners qualified for a trip to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California and were given a private tour of their facilities by Rob Manning, Mission Director for NASA’s Rover program in another robotics competition.