Arthur S. Flemming Awards

Applied Science and Engineering

Dr. Steven Brian Mirsky, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD

Dr. Mirsky is recognized for pioneering the merger of precision and sustainable agriculture to make farming more productive, site-specific, adaptive, and resilient in the face of climate change, declining soil and water quality, and pest resistance. Precision and sustainable agriculture is knowledge intensive, and Dr. Steven Mirsky broke down existing data silos to elucidate how climate, soil, management, genetic and social factors interact, and provided site-specific, resilient, and adaptive solutions to growers. Dr. Mirsky is accelerating and merging precision and sustainability solutions by assembling highly coordinated transdisciplinary research, extension and education teams; commodity boards; and farmers with strong public/private partnerships. Dr. Mirsky is building the tools, cyberinfrastructure, and communities of practice necessary for real- time communication and data acquisition, aggregation, analytics, and visualization. He is also advancing research and practice on sustainable field crop production systems, cover crop services, and the management of soils, weeds, water, and nutrients by building technology transfer pipelines to realize the potential of computer technology, machine learning applications, web-based applications, and decision support tools for researchers among and beyond his network to advance scientific discovery.

Dr. John E. Schiel, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, MD

Dr. John E. Schiel is recognized for outstanding federal service for development of a protein therapeutic measurements and standards program that works closely with the biopharmaceutical industry, regulators, and instrumentation companies. Specifically, he led a team of NIST scientists in developing a world-first monoclonal antibody reference material, NISTmAb, a global benchmark that assures the performance of biopharmaceutical drug product release tests and new analytical tools and supports the development of manufacturing technologies. NISTmAb ensures the consistent manufacture of high-quality protein drugs that are used to treat serious medical conditions such as cancer, autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases. Working with the biopharmaceutical community, Dr. Schiel has used NISTmAb to establish industry best practices and harmonized methods for characterizing and testing mAb products, which helps to eliminate of industry efforts, reduce regulatory uncertainty, and speed the development of mAb products and reduce their time-to-market. In just over ten years, Dr. Schiel’s scientific innovations, technology transfer, and service to industry stakeholders have made him an internationally recognized authority in the measurement of complex protein therapeutics.

Dr. Stephanie Schollaert Uz, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Dr. Stephanie Schollaert Uz is internationally recognized for advancing the application of satellite remote sensing through the novel integration of data and models to improve monitoring of water quality. She currently serves as the Applied Sciences Manager within the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, providing leadership and scientific support for applications research while continuing to lead her own highly successful research activities. Recently, to identify and close gaps between policy and decision maker needs and satellite capabilities, Dr. Schollaert Uz formed a coalition of stakeholders from federal, state, and municipal agencies, academia, and the private sector who are working together to solve challenges around remotely detecting water-borne pollutants and pathogens. She is also principal investigator for an interdisciplinary project to apply machine learning for water quality variables needed by Chesapeake Bay shellfish managers. Dr. Schollaert Uz leads the development of this new application, synthesizing the advantages of multiple datasets to provide earlier warnings within areas of water quality concerns to resource managers. Additionally, she advises early career scientists in developing new methods to distinguish aquatic constituents through their optical signatures, which is expected to benefit NASA’s next generation satellite missions. As evidence of her recognition, she is routinely invited to speak and engage with other agencies and organizations.

Leadership and Management

Victor Aledo Garcia, J.D., Internal Revenue Service, Media and Publication, Washington, DC

Victor Aledo’s exceptional leadership has transformed the way over 200 million taxpayers interact with the U.S. tax system, ensuring meaningful access to critical governmental programs by underserved populations. As the Acting Director of the Tax Forms and Publications Division, Victor oversees the development of tax forms, the administration of IRS language assistance programs, and the burden reduction process for all IRS collections of information. Over the last seven years, he has played a pivotal role in efforts to simplify the tax system by leading efforts to reengineer the most used forms, Forms 1040 and W-4, implement tax reform and disaster relief, and refine burden calculation by focusing on the taxpayer experience, eliminating double-counting, and reducing the overall number of submissions. In 2020, Victor led an effort to overhaul the way the IRS corresponds with taxpayers with limited English proficiency or disability, collaborating with offices throughout the IRS to dramatically expand the type and number of taxpayers that can be served.

Dr. Brian Michael Mazanec, United States Government Accountability Office, Washington, D.C.

Dr. Brian Mazanec has demonstrated outstanding leadership, innovation, and excellence in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the national security enterprise, particularly the Intelligence Community, better preparing Congress and agencies to address critical emerging threats and challenges. His persistence and hard work are responsible for GAO’s growing and important role in improving the management and integration of the $70 billion plus Intelligence Community enterprise and its workforce, as well as building critical new partnerships with Congressional intelligence committees and senior Intelligence Community leadership. In addition to serving as a director responsible for GAO’s strategic warfare and intelligence portfolio, Dr. Mazanec has sought to educate and mentor a diverse and capable next generation of national security leaders. He has also led numerous efforts to position GAO to conduct an increasing amount of classified work and protect sensitive and classified information, which the legislative branch agency depends on in order to support Congress and, ultimately, help the government better serve the American people.

Dr. Igor Linkov, US Army Corps of Engineers, Brookline, MA

Dr. Igor Linkov’s research vision and methodology in risk, resilience, and decision science have generated tools and practices that are in use by the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and many other agencies. Even though the COVID-19 crisis was outside of the normal USACE domain, Dr. Linkov’s scientific tools have been used by several agencies to address COVID-19 challenges, including his support to FEMA/HHS Region 1 and the White House Coronavirus (COVID-19) Task Force. Dr. Linkov’s unique contributions to mitigate the consequences of the ongoing global pandemic are worthy of this honor and continue to support and achieve the DOD mission during considerable scientific challenges and uncertainty. His work producing innovative technology for the COVID-19 response fulfills the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) while illustrating the profound impact that technology can have on human life world- wide. He has published 26 books and over 400 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.

Nidhi Singh Shah, MPH, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Baltimore, MD

Ms. Nidhi Singh Shah joined the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2012 and transformed the lives of over 12 million Americans, enacting quality-based programs for the Marketplace and Health Insurance Exchanges, through the policy development for quality initiatives established by the Affordable Care Act, including the Quality Rating System, Quality Improvement Strategy, and consumer experience surveys, which provided national patient safety standards for health plan issuers. Nidhi has fifteen years of professional experience with proven exceptional ability to lead the development of national programs and policies focused on advancing healthcare quality through measurement and improvement. She is strongly committed to evaluating the impact of public health policies on vulnerable and underserved, minority populations to improve access to quality healthcare for all; developing strategic plans, statements of work, budget requirements and long range planning and resource allocation; and demonstrating exceptional oral and written communication skills to provide technical advice to public and private leaders on federal quality initiatives.

Basic Science

Dr. Keir Cajal Neuman, Health and Human Services/NHLBI, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD

Dr. Neuman is acknowledged for the development of innovative technology enabling pioneering studies of the structural dynamics of twisted (supercoiled) DNA and topoisomerases, the essential enzymes that control DNA supercoiling and preserve genome integrity in cells. Dr. Neuman has perfected physics-based approaches and built unique instrumentation to control individual DNA molecules with unprecedented precision. Combined with sophisticated mathematical analysis, multi-scale simulations, and molecular biology tools, this methodology established a new paradigm to unravel the complex interplay between the physical aspects of DNA supercoiling and the action of topoisomerases, the critical enzymes that regulate DNA structure and supercoiling in all cells. Integrating his research in this manner has provided novel insights and resolved longstanding questions concerning essential mechanisms of topoisomerases, the inhibition topoisomerases by anticancer chemotherapeutic agents, and fundamental aspects of DNA topology. These discoveries will help guide the development of new anticancer and antimicrobial treatments targeting topoisomerases while elucidating mechanisms and establishing the efficiency of topoisomerase inhibitors at the single molecule level.

Dr. Alexey Gorshkov, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, MD

Dr. Alexey Gorshkov is recognized for his pioneering research at the crossroads of quantum optics, and atomic and condensed matter physics, helping to usher in the coming quantum revolution. His landmark achievement of creating strong interactions between photons – particles of light that do not by nature interact – provides a practical basis for a new generation of technology, where instead of electrons, circuits of light are used to perform logical operations and computations. Expanding upon his successful demonstration, which was hailed as one of Physics World’s Top 10 breakthroughs, he has shown novel ways to control strongly coupled atom/light systems, and is laying the theoretical foundation for a new suite of enabling quantum technologies, including an entirely new single-photon source, photon-photon quantum gates, single-photon transistors, and lasers with ultranarrow-linewidth non-classical output. He has established new protocols for quantum sensor networks, and has defined tighter limits on the rate at which information can travel in quantum systems, setting limits on the performance of quantum computers.

Legal Achievement

Keith A. Becker, J.D., Department of Justice, Washington, DC

Keith Becker was nominated for exceptional legal work investigating and prosecuting child sexual exploitation and abuse. As a Deputy Chief and Trial Attorney for the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Mr. Becker has developed and implemented innovative criminal enforcement strategies that profoundly improved our nation’s ability to identify, apprehend and bring to justice highly sophisticated child sexual predators and to prevent the ongoing victimization of children. As the lead U.S. prosecutor in multiple highly complex, national and international child sexual exploitation investigations and prosecutions, Mr. Becker has worked diligently with U.S. and foreign law enforcement partners to enable the successful use of cutting-edge law enforcement tools and techniques to identify evidence and offenders, often when deployed for the first time in a criminal investigation; successfully defended the lawful use of such cutting-edge tools and techniques against novel legal challenges, and provided expert advice and guidance to Department prosecutors prosecuting cases arising from the use of such tools.

Social Science

Suzanne Shirley, LCSW, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC

Suzanne Shirley, LCSW, is the Director of Fellowships & Community Engagement with the Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE), and in this role, she has transformed the way the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) engages with both internal and external collaborators to drive and accelerate health care innovation within one of the country’s largest healthcare systems. Her impact ranges from spearheading remote patient monitoring innovations, to developing partnerships to support Veteran caregivers, to accelerating clinical trials for COVID-19 efforts. These efforts, made possible by her leadership, creativity, and ability to collaborate across VA departments and with external organizations, have led to the discovery and spread of mission-driven health care innovation, advanced care delivery and services, and ultimately transformation in the lives of Veterans, their families, and their communities.

Dr. Tisha R. Wiley, National Institute on Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD

Dr. Tisha Wiley is the primary architect of the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), an ambitious initiative that seeks to address the drug overdose crisis by reimagining the way the justice system responds to addiction. JCOIN consists of 12 academic research “hubs,” a methodology and analytics resource center, and a coordination and translation center. JCOIN builds linkages between scientists at academic centers and justice systems—jails, prisons, probation/parole, drug courts, juvenile justice, and similar settings—so that policy and practice innovations can be rapidly launched and rigorously tested. JCOIN’s focus is provision of evidence- based opioid treatment services to individuals as they transition from the justice system to the community. Through this initiative, JCOIN will field 13 large-scale clinical trials in more than 115 communities across 27 states and Puerto Rico, with an expected reach of more than 40,000 justice- involved individuals. Collectively, these trials should provide a robust set of interventions with strong empirical foundations that can be replicated and deployed within the justice system nationally, improving both public health and public safety.

APPLIED SCIENCE

Ian Coddington, Applied Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce 

Dr. Coddington helped to develop a new laser technique, dual-comb spectroscopy, and then transformed it from a laboratory experiment into a robust and reliable technology. He demonstrated dual-comb technology for atmospheric gas sensing, precision laser ranging and many other applications. He and his collaborators detected costly and dangerous methane leaks with extraordinary sensitivity. 

Jo Anne Crouch, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture 

Dr. Crouch pioneered cutting-edge technologies and creative research methodologies to solve major disease problems of economically important plants. Dr. Crouch developed molecular diagnostic tools for identifying pathogens of several plant species, including impatiens, boxwood, black-eyed Susan, turfgrasses, cereal grains and bioenergy crops. Dr. Crouch also directs a research program that promptly responds to industry needs and generates findings that save stakeholders millions of dollars that would otherwise be lost to disease. 

BASIC SCIENCE

Keenan McCall, Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Air Force

Capt. McCall revamped the Department of Defense’s processes for the exploitation of fingerprints on digital media objects, pioneered a new process for Air Force investigations with blood invisible to the naked eye and set benchmarks for the identification of blood in an outdoor crime scene, for all international crime scene investigators across local, state and federal agencies. He represented the Air Force at both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the International Association for Identification, while maintaining a certification with the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. 

Heather Allen, Agricultural Research Service, National Animal Disease Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture (awarded posthumously)

Dr. Allen pioneered research that led to a unique and innovative understanding of the sources, prevalence, and dynamics of antibiotic resistance genes in the swine gut microbiome and surrounding agroecosystems. Dr. Allen has been able to shed critical insights into the diversity, ecology and sources of antibiotic resistance. Ultimately, her research has informed federal policy and identified new directions for discovering antibiotic alternatives that will improve swine performance, control foodborne pathogens and reduce antibiotic resistance gene carriage. 

Andrew Ludlow, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce

Dr. Ludlow led the development of the most accurate and precise clocks ever constructed. These "optical clocks" are based on ultrastabilized lasers and are 100-1000 times more stable and accurate than today's standard atomic clocks and will replace them one day as the ultimate timekeepers. His clocks filled a technical gap needed for advances in high-speed electronics and communications and ultra-precise navigation. Dr. Ludlow and his team have set world records for atomic clock precision and accuracy. They have proven the usefulness of these new clocks for a variety of applications including advancing the nation's official time scale and searching for dark matter. 

LEADERSHIP

Traci Archibald, Division of Community and Population Health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

Ms. Archibald worked to successfully improve health outcomes and to lower healthcare costs. She developed and is leading a wide array of challenging, high-priority programs at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. One of her key accomplishments was designing and operating a nationwide program of technical assistance to help small, rural practices and those providing care to medically underserved populations to participate successfully in a new Medicare payment program. 

James-Christian Blockwood, Strategic Planning and External Liaison, U.S. Government Accountability Office

Mr. Blockwood oversaw the development of the GAO’s 2018-2023 strategic plan, which guides the watchdog agency's work. Mr. Blockwood also founded and oversees two unique resources: the Center for Audit Excellence, which seeks to build the capacity of accountability organizations domestically and internationally, and the Center for Strategic Foresight, which prepares studies on such cutting-edge issues as artificial intelligence, deep fakes and deep space. In that role, he manages training opportunities and knowledge sharing forums for more than 1,500 domestic auditors and represents GAO at the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. 

Duncan MacCannell, Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

Dr. MacCannell played a pivotal role in bringing next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics, transformational and novel technologies, into routine public health practice, first at the CDC and then in the wider U.S. public health system. These technologies are now central to such critical functions as foodborne outbreak detection and influenza surveillance. In 2019, Dr. MacCannell led an effort extend the impact of these technologies globally by bringing together CDC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners to establish the Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology, which aims to coordinate bioinformatics efforts to facilitate the adoption of pathogen genomics by public health programs both in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

LEGAL ACHIEVEMENT

Samantha Thomas, Office of the Solicitor, Region 3, U.S. Department of Labor

Ms. Thomas led a team of attorneys and support staff in successfully recovering $5,867,536 in back wages to 1,562 coal miners and other mine employees in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Wyoming. Ms. Thomas also worked with other departmental offices and agencies over a three-month period as the employer filed for bankruptcy, a buyer asserted its rights to transport the coal, four cases in litigation proceeded and the mined coal was stockpiled or sat in rail cars, prevented from being transported by unpaid miners who had camped out on railroad tracks to ensure the coal stayed put.

Steven Shermer, Environmental Enforcement Section, U.S. Department of Justice 

Mr. Shermer demonstrated outstanding talent and dedication toward protecting communities, many minority or low income, from hazardous, toxic and cancer-causing pollution. He squared off with the nation’s largest industrial companies in matters involving huge facilities like refineries, chemical plants and glass factories, achieving cleaner air and thousands fewer tons of pollutants. 

SOCIAL SCIENCE

Ana Rappold, Clinical Research Branch, Environmental Protection Agency 

Dr. Rappold, a statistician and epidemiologist, researches the links between wildfire smoke and adverse health outcomes. Dr. Rappold brought to life a groundbreaking method for real-time communication and data collection about smoke and health during wildfire events through the Smoke Sense Project, a smartphone app that provides participants vital information about wildfire smoke and health when and where they need it. Dr. Rappold’s innovative approach integrates citizen science, environmental health research, and smartphone technology to empower participants to respond to a complex, dynamic, and emergent environmental event. 

Andrea Apolo, Bladder Cancer Section, Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Apolo is an expert on developing novel therapies for the treatment of urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Dr. Apolo formed a research program with the goal of developing novel therapies for bladder cancer. In a clinical trial carried out by Dr. Apolo and others, she demonstrated that Avelumab treatment - an immune checkpoint inhibitor which helps the body's own immune system target and kill cancer cells - was associated with prolonged survival in patients with refractory metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Dr. Apolo then led the academic effort to get Avelumab approved by the FDA for the treatment of bladder cancer. 

Anna Maria Ortiz, Natural Resources and Environment Issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office 

Dr. Ortiz has been a key force behind GAO studies that have yielded billions in taxpayer savings and improved vital government programs and services. In her role as a director on GAO's Natural Resources and Environment team, she led efforts to transform how GAO audits tribal and Native American issues by bridging organizational silos and forging external partnerships to better serve Congress and, ultimately, improve federal activities essential to the wellbeing of the American people.

APPLIED SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Dr. John D. Bolten, Research Physical Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
For achieving advances in applying satellite remote sensing, land surface modeling, and data assimilation for water resources management, agricultural forecasting, and flood monitoring and impact assessment.  Recent examples of Dr. Bolten’s work include satellite data assimilation -based soil moisture maps that are used operationally by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, and the first maps based on data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) to be available on Google Earth Engine.  In addition to his own renowned research as a principal investigator, Dr. Bolten has guided dozens of projects in his role as Associate Program Manager, Water Resources, within NASA’s Applied Sciences Program.  He demonstrates exceptional creativity in conceiving novel approaches to complex, applied scientific problems and is highly regarded in the community, as evidenced by frequent requests to give keynote lectures at prominent domestic and international meetings and his nomination to and service on the National Research Council’s Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space in 2017, which will guide NASA’s Earth Science mission priorities in the 2020s.

Dr. Feng Gao, Research Physical Scientist at Agricultural Research Service/US Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland
In recognition of his original research in the application of remote sensing for crop and vegetation monitoring.  Dr. Gao is internationally acclaimed for his development of multiple high-impact remote sensing algorithms and tools that have advanced research related to the scaling of hydrologic states and fluxes, and land-atmosphere processes, as well as operational monitoring and decision tools for agriculture.  For his expertise and contributions, he has been selected to serve on two key NASA/USGS satellite science teams (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-MODIS and Landsat) for five collective term. Dr. Gao is internationally recognized as a leading expert on remote sensing data fusion, which facilitates daily mapping of land-surface conditions at fine spatial scales and is capable of monitoring individual agricultural fields by fusing information from multiple satellites. His novel techniques for integrating satellite remote sensing date from NASA, USGS, NOAA and the European Space Agency into useful and robust date products have been adopted by state-of-the-art land surface models and have had immediate and significant impact on improving agricultural modeling and monitoring.  

Dr. R. Joseph Kline, Materials Research Engineer at National Institute of Standards and Technology – Department of Commerce in Gaithersburg, Maryland
For his outstanding federal service through interdisciplinary research in the evolution of methods to determine the complex, three-dimensional structure of advanced state-of-the-art structures needed for today’s semiconductor industry and the molecular structure and orientation of organic electronics materials for flexible electronics.  These methods have had an enormous impact through providing the insight needed to design organic materials that can be used in high performance, low-cost devices, a viable method to provide the semi-conductor industry the ability to measure the complex structures they manufacture.  Dr. Kline’s work spans a breadth of topics, including the structure of organic electronics materials, X-ray scattering, synchrotron measurement methods, materials properties, and self-assembling materials.  Through his exceptional scientific work and close interactions with industry, Dr. Kline has had a lasting impact on electronics materials research in the United States and around the world.

BASIC SCIENCE

Dr. John P. Florian, Senior Research Physiologist and Biomedical Research Program Manager at Navy Experimental Diving Unit, US Navy in Panama City, Florida
For his outstanding leadership of multi-agency collaborative efforts in the areas of human performance, diving physiology, oxygen toxicity, thermoregulation, ad biometric monitoring to advance warfighter safety, performance and mission completion.  Dr. Florian has consistently excelled as a high level performer though his multidisciplinary work as scientist; exceptional leadership as head of Warfighter Human Performance research; and demonstrated passion and commitment to expanding our Navy’s advantage through innovation and collaboration with US and international partners.  His pioneering work has led to a new focus in understanding and resolving whole-body oxygen toxicity, a condition that adversely affects diver and SEAL physiological performance after breathing high levels of oxygen during diving operations.  Over the past year he completed seminal work on the effects of hyperoxia on multiple organ systems while also encapsulating recovery times for the whole-body toxicity to facilitate reinsertion to duty.  His work has also advanced complex thermoregulatory principles to support coldwater operations.  He continues to push the boundaries of science though scholarly publications, while also providing mission-critical guidance to protect our warfighters.

Dr. Khanh D. Pham, Senior Aerospace Engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Materiel Command in Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico
In recognition of his pioneering contributions to statistical optimal control theory and game-theoretic operations research for space situational awareness and military communications, the key to making space autonomy and assured satellite communications an integral part of tomorrow’s airspace.  Dr. Pham is a Fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical and Instrumentation Engineers, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is the principal scientific authority and independent researcher in satellite command and control autonomy, assured communications and space situational awareness. He is a pioneer in theory and operations research related to space situational awareness and military communications, which affect military satellite communications. Dr. Pham holds 20 U.S. patents for his work. Thanks to his tremendous research skills he is regarded as a top performer within the US Air Force.

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

Deepa Avula, Director, Office of Financial Resources at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in Rockville, Maryland
For consistently achieving remarkable results, in the face of a national crisis of opioid addiction and other behavioral health priorities, throughout her career with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMSHA), as a strategic and creative problem-solver, an insightful administrator who moves beyond the numbers to inspire cooperation and collaboration across SAMSHA.  Ms. Avula’s ingenuity, innovation and creativity combined with her dedication and commitment to public service have yielded tremendous success which has benefited so many.  She revolutionized the use of data for performance management and changed business practices in the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, leading the effort to consolidate 17 disparate contracts into a single repository for data collection and reporting to monitor the Center’s $350M in discretionary grant spending. She partnered with other SAMSHA Centers to assist them in developing and implementing some of the practices and strategies implemented in her own Center.  Ms. Avula was called upon to manage successfully a $100M Presidential Initiative, a revolutionary, complex program designed to put the choice of provider back into the hands of the client who received services for substance abuse disorders.  She received special recognition from the White House Office for Faith-Based Affairs for her work leading this program.  In addition, her superlative management skills have led to optimization of technology to streamline grant development processing; elimination of waste and fraud; simplified risk assessment; and have played a key role in SAMSHA’s response to the national crisis of opioid abuse and addiction.

Elizabeth Argeris Lewis, Communications Analyst at the National Science Foundation – Office of Inspector General in Morristown, New Jersey & Alexandria, Virginia
For her outstanding success as an influencer, leader, and innovator throughout her government career.  Ms. Lewis constantly strives for process improvement, leads change, and sets the standard for success in each organization in which she works.  Her most recent effort in changing a long-standing, congressionally mandated report on Management Challenges is a glowing example of her skills in helping to move the government to the future.  The change was significant and received laudatory comments from the Director of the National Science Foundation and was featured on ABC-7’s Government Matters television program.  Ms. Lewis’s new format, which helped more clearly define management challenges facing the agency, actions taken to address the challenges and remaining steps in a visually appealing, concise way, caught the attention of agency leadership, congressional staffers, and other senior leaders in the Inspector General community – increasing participation in her movement to make IG reports understandable, approachable, and accessible for the public and other stakeholders.  This is just one example of her “readers first” mentality and drive that have changed government reports from the traditional, dense, data-filled documents to concise, readable, well-messaged products; her initiative and use of social media to get messages out has been masterful; and her tenacious pursuit of change in the face of opposition is remarkable.

Brittney R. Soltes, National Disaster Program Manager for the US Army Corps of Engineers in the New York District
For her excellent leadership and management of the Inspection of Completed Works program for New York District.  The purpose of the program is to inform non-Federal partners of the status and condition of flood risk management levees or hurricane and shore protection projects to ensure those efforts are still eligible for repair if they are damaged by a storm event under the Public Law 84-99 program.  Ms. Soltes has developed an improved process to significantly shorten the timeframe from over a year down to just weeks for obtaining the inspection reports from the engineers performing the inspection and reporting the condition status for these projects to our non-Federal partners.  This improvement in communication is important for our partners so they can be immediately aware of any major risks to these projects and quickly and efficiently plan for any needed repairs.  The non-Federal partners have consistently emphasized how much they appreciate the improvement of this process over the situation that previously prevailed.

LEGAL ACHIEVEMENT

Lt. Col. Matthew D. Talcott, Military Judge with the USAF / Air Force Trial Judiciary (Central Circuit) at Joint Base San Antonio in Randolph, Texas
For his extraordinary legal achievements and work, which have left an indelible mark on the Air Force criminal justice system.  Lt. Col. Talcott distinguished himself as Judge Advocate in the Air Force from 2005 through 2018.  As a young JAG, Col. Talcott was recognized as a phenomenal advocate, rising to be the top advocate in each and every position he held from 2007 through 2013.  Thereafter, his singularly remarkable skills were revealed at the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School where he was not only the #1 instructor but also garnered historic and “landscape changing” appellate victories for all victims through unequaled writing and advocacy.  He was selected to develop an advanced training course for the Air Force’s most senior litigators, focusing on sexual assault litigation; this course would become the Advanced Sexual Assault Litigation Course in 2014 and is the Department of Defense’s only course designed to educate the experienced advocate on the nuances and difficult challenges  faced when prosecuting and defending sexual assault cases.  Unintimidated, as a new trial judge, Col. Talcott has expertly managed the Air Force’s online Judges’ Benchbook, an online publication utilized by the entire judiciary and advocates across the Air Force.

Laura A. Thoms, Senior Attorney at the US Department of Justice, Environmental Enforcement Section in Washington, D.C.
For using her highly skilled, legal talents to achieve remarkable success in prosecuting violations of the Clean Water Act by actors in the coal industry.  Seizing upon extensive violations of the law committed by several major coal producers all across Appalachia, Ms. Thoms engineered one of the most successful environmental enforcement campaigns in the history of the federal Clean Water Act.  Working with the US Environmental Protection Agency, the State of West Virginia, and the Commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Kentucky, Ms. Thoms redressed the violations of the federal Clean Water Act by seven companies, which represent about 50% of all coal production in Appalachia.  Her work addressed tens of thousands of violations of law.  Her efforts: required company improvements that will foster compliance with the applicable federal and state laws at an estimated cost of $412M; collected $55M in civil penalties; and should reduce water pollution by 150 million pounds.

SOCIAL SCIENCE, CLINICAL TRIALS, AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

Rebecca S. Dodder, Senior Physical Scientist at the Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
For her innovative techniques and leadership which have allowed EPA and the Nation to better understand the links between the production and use of energy and the full impacts on the environment and public health.  Ms. Dodder’s new way of thinking offers real-world approaches to addressing complex energy challenges.  She has advanced EPA energy-economic-environment modeling tools to assess a range of energy issues: biofuels and biomass; agricultural-energy market linkages; water use for energy; lifecycle impacts of vehicle design; and emission impacts of vehicle automation.  Dr. Dodder’s unique systems-oriented approach has made her a sought-after expert within and outside EPA.  She has dedicated her time and creativity to advance outreach to communities.  Her development of an educational board game turns the complexities of balancing energy costs and environmental impacts into a fun, engaging learning opportunity.  Through workshops, webinars and an on-line presence, the Generate game has been used by tens of thousands of students and educators and has now gone global.

Dr. Amy L. Vincent, Research Veterinary Medical Officer at the Agricultural Research Service/ US Department of Agriculture in Ames, Iowa
For her contributions identifying unique and emerging Influenza A virus (IAV) genotypes and championing establishment of a national swine IAV surveillance system.  IAV infects many hosts, with evidence that viruses with human and/or avian influenza virus genes frequently infect pigs, underscoring the need to continually monitor and study these viruses in swine.  Dr. Vincent led establishment of a surveillance system through pioneering collaborations between the Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC), USDA-ARS and USDA-APHIS that prepared USDA for launching a national surveillance system in response to emergence of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus and continued engagement with CDC on zoonotic infections of swine viruses.  Dr. Vincent’s research revealed the antigenic impact of genetic evolution of IAV and established a global context in swine.  Major antigenic epitopes were identified in swine IAV and established antigenic relationships of swine and human IAV. She led establishment of a global IAV nomenclature system that facilitates vaccine strain selection, comparisons between global regions, between hosts, and viral evolution insights.

APPLIED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Dr. Jeremy Banik, Senior Research Mechanical Engineer, USAF Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico
For his ground-breaking contributions as a Senior Research Mechanical Engineer in the area of deployable spacecraft structures at the USAF Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. Dr. Banik creatively applied his fundamental understanding of High Strain Composites to develop game-changing space deployable structures for the United States Air Force.  He conceived and developed a revolutionary Roll-Out Solar Array for the International Space Station which dramatically reduces the size and volume of traditional arrays. Implementation of his system has potential savings of $1.4B billion for the Air Force.

Dr. Lisa Drake, Physical Scientist, Naval Research Laboratory Chemistry Division, Key West, Florida
For her exemplary leadership as a Physical Scientist in the Naval Research Laboratory Chemistry Division, Key West, Florida, in the government’s response to ballast water-borne bio-invasions.  Early in her career Dr. Drake led the effort to publish the Generic Protocol of the Verification of Ballast Water Treatment Technology which, developed as the standard for US testing, has become the de facto global standard, as it has been adopted by intergovernmental agencies.  She is a US delegate to the International Maritime Organization and is a contributor to the International Standards Organization’s method for shipboard sampling.

Dr. Ralph Jimenez, Physicist, National Institute of Science & Technology, Boulder, Colorado
For his leadership, as a Physicist with the National Institute of Science & Technology in Boulder CO, of multidisciplinary Federal/University/Industry collaborations across the world, creating new tools to observe and measure the internal chemistry and biology of individual living cells in real time, accelerating previous studies by factors of 10,000 and more.  He combines ultrafast lasers, custom microfluidics, biochemistry, molecular biology and directed evolution to measure in real time the inner workings of individual living cells and to select those specific cells with unique attributes, almost instantaneously, for research into normal and diseased states, or for production of particular biological materials.

Dr. Jeffrey Szabo, General Engineer with the Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio
For his innovative vision and leadership, as a General Engineer with the Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, in advancing the Nation’s understanding of the fate, persistence and transport of contaminants in drinking water distribution systems, and in wastewater treatment facilities, in order to develop effective methodologies for cleaning these water infrastructures.  His research has greatly enhanced the Nation’s knowledge of how to decontaminate drinking water and waste water, and the water sector’s ability to respond to chemical, biological and radiological incidents. 

LEADERSHIP and/or MANAGEMENT

Major Michael Butler, Chief, Space Situational Awareness Branch, Defense Intelligence Agency, US Air Force, Patrick AFB, Florida
For his distinguished service as Chief, Space Situational Awareness Branch, Defense Intelligence Agency, US Air Force, Patrick AFB, Florida, leading a 63-member team from 15 national organizations to repurpose $6 billion in civil, Department of Defense, and Intelligence Community radar assets to plan, develop and execute multiple radar experiments and field a first-of-its kind imaging capability at no additional cost to the program.

Dr. Steven Putansu, Senior Social Science Analyst with the Government Accountability Office, Washington, D.C.
For his outstanding methodological contributions as a Senior Social Science Analyst with the Government Accountability Office, Washington D.C., which have ensured rigorous technical standards in hundreds of GAO performance audits, providing policymakers with high-quality information for overseeing federal programs and ensuring the best use of taxpayer dollars.  These stronger methodological criteria have generated in excess of $160 billion in financial benefits for the federal government.

Kelly Visconti, Technology Manager, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
For her tremendous leadership as Technology Manager in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy, Washington DC, in the formation and execution of the Department’s highly successful response to the President’s call to bolster the competitiveness of American manufacturing.  She drove the investment of over $900 million into public-private partnerships under the Manufacturing USA initiative to accelerate technical innovations in critical areas of the manufacturing ecosystem that will enable US manufacturing to assume global leadership.

LEGAL ACHIEVEMENT

Bethany Engel, Senior Attorney, Environmental & Natural Resource Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
For achieving record-breaking results for the environment as an exceptional Senior Attorney with the Environmental & Natural Resource Division of the Department of Justice, Washington DC.  She led the DOJ’s civil litigation against Volkswagen for its emissions cheating, leading to a record $17.4B in relief; and she played several vital roles in the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” case, ensuring the security of over 100 million key government documents essential to the government’s case and the eventual $14 billion recovery for the government and enabled a further $6 billion recovery for Gulf States.

Mark Freeman, Senior Appellate Counsel, Civil Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
For his outstanding work as Senior Appellate Counsel for Advanced Technology and Intellectual Property in the Civil Division, Department of Justice, Washington DC.  In nearly every intellectual property case in the past 10 years, he has played an instrumental role in developing the government’s arguments and drafting the government’s briefs.  He is widely recognized, both within the government and beyond, as one of DOJ’s leading experts in intellectual property law and has argued cases before the Supreme Court and all 13 federal courts of appeals.

Lt. Col. Matthew King, Chief, Air & Space Law, United States Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, D.C., and Deputy Legal Advisor, Combined Air Operations Center, Air Forces Central.,Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar
For his distinguished service and keen knowledge of the law of war as Chief, Air & Space Law, with the United States Air Force, Pentagon, Washington DC and Deputy Legal Advisor, Combined Air Operations Center, Air Forces Central. Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.  He ensured the legality of every deliberate air strike against the Islamic State, leading a team of 3 Combat Operations in 4,495 dynamic strikes.  His legal acumen in reviewing 475 targets led to key changes in timing and scan requirements, avoiding over 500 civilian casualties.

Michael Sullivan, Senior Litigation Counsel, United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio
For his highly successful prosecution, as Senior Litigation Counsel with the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio, of child exploitation cases.  He has gained a national reputation for his aggressive prosecution of these offenders.  His greatest contribution may well be his role in the implementation and promotion of a new investigative protocol for child pornography cases that has been incredibly successful in Northern Ohio and has been replicated across the country.

SOCIAL SCIENCE, CLINICAL TRIALS, & TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

Dr. Emily Haas, Lead Research Behavioral Scientist, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Pittsburgh, PA
For demonstrating superior leadership skills as Lead Research Behavioral Scientist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Pittsburgh PA.  Her research and leadership have directly contributed to preventing work-related illness and injury in the mining industry.  She collaborated with mining engineers on projects directly relevant to addressing regulations that have continually reduced permissible exposure limits for respirable dusts, a leading cause of occupational death from black lung disease among US miners. Her research results are delivered back to industry management for action.

APPLIED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

TIMOTHY J. DAVIS   18th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, U.S. Air Force
Maj. Davis researched the unique feeding practices of disease-carrying mosquitoes and applied this science to disease detection and infection risk mitigation. He paved the way for improved disease surveillance and prevention. Maj. Davis sampled over 15,000 vectors to test this improved detection technology and to support a multimillion-dollar Japanese Encephalitis vaccination policy. He also applied his biosurveillance initiatives to better characterize the spread of Zika, dengue and chikungunya in the Pacific region, resulting in the protection of nine U.S. military bases and over 60,000 Department of Defense personnel. His technology will be used throughout the Air Force as a disease detection and early warning system.

S. TINA GHOSH   Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Dr. Ghosh is a world-renowned nuclear power plant safety engineer. She helped protect the public from potential accidents involving nuclear power plants and repositories for high-level radioactive waste. Dr. Ghosh assessed the potential need for filtered vents for nuclear reactor containments following the accident at the Fukushima-Dai-ichi plants in Japan in 2011; she is NRC’s expert for analyses on severe accidents. She identified critical insights about severe accidents to mitigate them and ensure the U.S.’s operating nuclear power plants have safety systems and procedures to protect the public.

DALIA B. KIRSCHBAUM   Global Precipitation Measurement Mission and Earth Sciences Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Dr. Kirschbaum works on evaluating rainfall-triggered landslides around the world. She applied satellite-based surface and rainfall information within landslide hazard models to support situational awareness of these hazards in near real time. This technique has been used for disaster response by countries around the world as well as groups such as FEMA, the World Bank, the Pacific Disaster Center and others.

BLAKE SCHAEFFER   Environmental Protection Agency
Dr. Schaeffer led a multiagency partnership to create the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network, which uses satellite to gain insight into harmful algal blooms to inform public health and environmental decisions. He also developed an app to spread this satellite information on whether bodies of water are safe for drinking and recreation

BASIC SCIENCE

PAUL M. ALSING   Air Force Research Laboratory, U.S. Air Force
Dr. Alsing is an international leader who is leading cutting-edge research and development in quantum information science and computation. His leadership of the Air Force’s quantum information sciences group catapulted the Air Force Research Laboratory’s creditability and recognition. His groundbreaking research in relativistic quantum information theory will be provide evidence of how entangled photon interactions can be developed into future Air Force quantum computer systems.

MARCUS T. CICERONE   National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Cicerone has made key contributions to the fields of label-free chemical imaging and biological therapeutics. His work allows the associated technologies to be used in practical applications including label-free chemical mapping of diseased tissues with unprecedented speed, and a bench-top fluorescence method for rapidly evaluating freeze-dried formulations.

MICHAEL H. COSH   Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Dr. Cosh is known for his work on satellite remote sensing of soil moisture calibration and validation. He is a major contributor to NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission and ESA’s Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity mission. His research led to a dataset for the verification of an essential climate variable. The application of this research includes improved weather and climate modeling and forecasting, basin-scale water accounting and improved monitoring and sustainability of agricultural water use in water-insecure regions.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

SARAH L. DICKERSON   National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Nuclear Material Removals, U.S. Department of Energy
Under Ms. Dickerson’s leadership, the Department of Energy led an international effort to permanently reduce the threat of nuclear weapons materials by removing or disposing of more than 6,000 kilograms of weapons-usable nuclear material around the world – enough for more than 240 weapons. In 2016, Ms. Dickerson’s efforts resulted in the single largest removal campaign, with more than 500 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and plutonium being removed from Japan to the U.S.

MICHAEL J. KANAAN   51st Intelligence Squadron, U.S. Air Force
Capt. Kanaan led his team to implement the first-ever intelligence picture to visualize millions of previously undiscoverable data points from unmanned aerial surveillance platforms, provide analysts with open-source data streams and help advance the Director of National Intelligence’s vision of analysis for all levels of government. His leadership, initiative and determination resulted in condensing 170 daily research actions to 25, reducing 1.5 hours of daily target development to five minutes, consolidating 24 research programs to three and skyrocketing the Intelligence Community’s adoption of cloud-based architecture by 40 percent. Capt. Kanaan is also the Air Force’s mission manager for a national campaign in support of targeting the Islamic State.

SOCIAL SCIENCE, CLINICAL TRIALS AND TRANSLATIONAL RESERACH

SUSAN A. SABATINO   Division of Cancer Prevention and Control’s Epidemiology and Applied Research Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Sabatino performs systematic literature reviews for the Community Preventative Services Task Force and conducts public health research on quality of cancer care, including a wide range of cancers and topics such as screening, treatment and survivorship.

APPLIED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

DR. MARTHA C. ANDERSON   U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland
For her contributions to satellite remote sensing of global cropland and freshwater resources. Dr. Martha Anderson is internationally known for her innovative work in combining information from multiple satellite-based earth imaging systems to enable mapping of water use and crop stress from farm field to global scales. Her mapping algorithms have been implemented operationally by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in support of drought early warning over the North American continent.  International partners use Dr. Anderson’s methods for yield prediction, basin-scale water accounting and for monitoring sustainability of agricultural water use in water-insecure regions. As demands for food production continue to increase, these satellite tools will help to assess global crop water productivity – how much yield is produced per drop of water used – and where efficiencies in production might be achieved. Dr. Anderson also serves on the Pecora Award winning Landsat 8 Science Team, and as editor on two scientific journals.

DR. GAYLE HAGLER  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Durham, North Carolina
For her initiation and leadership as an environmental engineer of the Village Green Project (VG P).  The VGP is a community-based research effort to demonstrate real-time air monitoring technology, engage the public to learn about local air quality, and collect high-quality data for research.  Under Dr. Hagler’s direction the project has developed a highly efficient, solar-powered monitoring platform that incorporates research-grade environmental sensors into a park bench structure that can be located anywhere. This fills an important data gap in air monitoring because the current regulatory network has few stations to measure ambient concentrations of air pollutions in a mid-sized city, limiting the spatial diversity of the data collected.  The VGP has contributed significantly to citizen science through the installation of five benches across the country, with another two planned for 2016. Finding innovative ways to measure air pollution in more places is highly desirable to the Agency and will provide a better understanding of local air quality impacts related to nearby sources.

DR. JAMES A. HANSEN  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, California
For his unique research focusing on the science of prediction – using uncertainty estimates to improve human forecasts and influence Navy and DoD courses of action. Dr. Hansen creatively engages Navy operational customers to determine requirements, which he channels back into his basic and applied research to provide value-added tactical decision aids to warfighters. His innovative products merge meteorological, intelligence, and operations research information to predict when and where an event will most likely occur, allowing Commanders to assess risk, reduce costs, and enhance safety of operations. Dr. Hansen’s Piracy Attack Rick Surface (PARS) increases the safety of commercial shipping in the Indian Ocean by predicting where pirates will likely operate and suggests how and where to assign forces to counter threats. PARS has been adapted to assist counter drug and human smuggling operations. Dr. Hansen’s Tropical Cyclone Sortie program calculates when and how ships and aircraft should evaluate areas threatened by severe storms. His innovative Ship Routing program applies forecast environmental impacts to Navy ocean voyages to minimize fuel use and reduce the threat of storm damage.

BASIC SCIENCE

DR. DANIEL S. HUSSEY    National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland
For his pioneering contributions in neutron imaging, which are not only advancing current technologies but are also pushing the frontiers of what is possible. Dr. Hussey is internationally known for developing a highly sensitive neutron phase imaging technique with applications in semiconductor, biology, geology and alternative energy research, and has leveraged this expertise to demonstrate the world' s first practical neutron microscope. This will fill a significant gap in the length scales of current neutron scattering technologies. He has helped advance hydrogen fuel cell technologies and hydrogen storage devices by applying his cutting-edge neutron measurement techniques to overcoming technology barriers related to water/hydrogen transport. The techniques and methods that Dr. Hussey developed are becoming industry standards and are used by most major fuel-cell and battery manufacturers as well as automotive companies, universities, and national laboratories. He has also applied his unique expertise to the development of an innovative method which is contributing to one of the most important physics experiments of our time -the measurement of the electric dipole moment of the neutron.

DR. MATTHEW RODELL  National Aeronautics & Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
For his internationally recognized research as a supervisory physical scientist on remote sensing and numerical modeling of the water cycle, including a groundbreaking study completed in 2015. Starting in 2008, Dr. Rodell led a multi-institutional team of 24 scientists in performing an analysis of the state of the global water and energy cycles during the first decade of the millennium, based on data from modern observing systems and observation-integrating models. In 2015 this work culminated in two revolutionary publications. The associated dataset now serves as a baseline for hydroclimatic variability studies, climate change predictions, and Earth system model evaluations. Dr. Rodell began government service in the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA/GSFC in 2001, and he has been its Chief since 2012. His seminal research on the use of data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission to estimate changes in terrestrial water storage laid the foundation for hundreds of studies that have followed. Dr. Rodell is also widely known for leading the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) project, whose global hydrometerological data fields were downloaded by over 5,700 distinct users in 2014 alone.

LEADERSHIP AND/OR MANAGEMENT

MAJOR CHRISTOPHER D. JEFFERSON  National Reconnaissance Office, Cape Canaveral, Florida
For his distinguished accomplishments as Director of Operations at the Office of Space Launch, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in 2015. Major Jefferson spearheaded all National Reconnaissance Office satellite vehicle processing, integration, launch operations and launch base infrastructure readiness. Major Jefferson led his team through declaration and initialization of full operational capability for the Eastern Processing Facility. His technical acumen and dogged determination led to this noteworthy achievement for the world’s largest spacecraft processing facility. Major Jefferson initiated thousands of critical tasks, essential plans and procedures and the equipment items necessary to support mission operations in the facility. The impact of his achievement was monumental, as this national resource is expected to meet the Intelligence Community’s spacecraft procession needs for the next 30 years. He and his team made history by integrating operations for four concurrent satellite launches, an unprecedented feat. Major Jefferson planned and executed launch base processing support for agency missions and programs such as the Global Positioning System, Mobile User Objective System, Wideband Global Satellite Communication System and the Space-Based Infrared System. In addition, he led the effort to form the first-ever National Reconnaissance Office partnership with the Air Force and SpaceX.

DR. CHARLES ROMINE    National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland
For his outstanding leadership and management in information technology standards, measurement and research, which have brought him global recognition. Dr. Romine’s efforts have led to the establishment of capabilities that will ensure future U.S. economic success, such as the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence; the NIST Cybersecurity Framework; and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (with the University of Maryland). He is also responsible for leading the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education. The NIST Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) has seen its responsibilities grow in scope and importance, and its budget nearly double in the four years of Dr. Romine's leadership. ITL's success can be directly attributed to Dr. Romine's dedication in developing an organization that can successfully recruit the best and brightest staff, and collaborators from around the world, in an extremely competitive environment. Despite the blistering pace of the information technology industry, Dr. Romine has consistently demonstrated the agile and creative leadership necessary to address some of the most complex challenges facing the United States.

MITCHELL ZELLER  U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health & Human Services, Silver Spring, Maryland
For making outstanding contributions to public service as Director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products through his work to protect the public health through the regulation of tobacco products in the United States, setting policy and precedent that have national and global implications.  Mr. Zeller has exhibited exceptional achievement by leading FDA’s efforts to regulate tobacco products.  The FDA is doing unprecedented work in the area of tobacco regulation; no other country has the authority that FDA has to protect the public from the harmful effects of tobacco.  Mr. Zeller's specific accomplishments include:  building the first­ ever nationwide enforcement program to reduce youth access to tobacco; working across government to issue a historic regulation to bring all tobacco products under FDA's jurisdiction; fostering the premarket review program for new tobacco products to enable FDA to make the first-ever decisions to remove tobacco products from the market or to allow new product s to come to market if they are in compliance with the law; and leading FDA's launch of nationwide youth tobacco prevention campaigns.

ELLIOTT B. ZENICK, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of the General Counsel, Washington DC
For establishing and leading as Assistant General Counsel the legal team for the Clean Power Plan, EPA’s new program to control greenhouse gas emissions from power plants – one of this country’s most important steps to address climate change. Mr. Zenick assembled and ably managed one of EPA’s largest ever legal teams using a large and diverse group of headquarters and regional attorneys to advise the agency on multiple concurrent rulemakings, and to build EPA legal capacity nationally to assist states during the implementation phase of the rules. His team provided necessary and timely legal advice to support the agency’s development of an innovative approach to achieve significant greenhouse gas reductions by giving states wide latitude in developing plans to reduce such emissions and allowing for important cost-saving flexibilities for power plants. The Plan recognizes the unique nature of the electricity industry and builds on clean energy changes already underway. Mr. Zenick’s team, working with the Department of Justice, also defeated six court cases seeking to block the EPA from issuing the Clean Power Plan.

LEGAL ACHIEVEMENT

ARTHUR T. CATTERALL  U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division/Appellate Section, Washington DC
For his outstanding and successful representation as an attorney of the Federal Government before the Courts of Appeals in exceptionally complex tax cases.  Mr. Catterall skillfully demystifies intricately designed – and abusive – tax shelters and addresses novel issues, frequently in opposition to the most sophisticated tax practitioners of the private bar.  His exceptional work has yielded impressive results. To note just two among several examples, his persistence in arguing that tax under-statement penalties were properly imposed on certain tax shelters helped achieve a unanimous Supreme Court victory in United States v. Woods, 134 S.Ct. 557 (2013), a victory that affected numerous pending cases involving aggregate misstatements of more than $4 billion.  In another noteworthy recent case, Amergen Energy, LLC v. United States, 779 F.3d 1368 (Fed, Cir. 2015), Mr. Catterall defeated the corporate taxpayer’s efforts to accelerate over $1.6 billion in future nuclear decommissioning costs.  His dedicated and sustained efforts have saved the Treasury hundreds of millions, if not billions, in tax revenues, and have contributed to maintaining the fairness and equity of our tax system.

SOCIAL SCIENCE, CLINICAL TRIALS & TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

DR. JENNITA REEFHUIS  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, Georgia
For her accomplishments as a research epidemiologist and outstanding leader within the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working toward the protection and promotion of the health of pregnant women and babies.  Dr. Reefhuis’ commitment to public health has been unwavering. She started her career in the 2001 class of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS). During her two years as an EIS officer, she contributed to the post-9/11 anthrax investigations and led the investigation of the association between cochlear implants and meningitis in children. Both investigations led to publications and awards, including the Shepard Award, the highest award for scientific merit at CDC. Dr. Reefhuis is currently the lead for the Epidemiology Team, and the project officer for the Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, a multi-million dollar collaborative study which has resulted in more than 200 manuscripts, including papers by Dr. Reefhuis that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal.

LT. COL. JASON REGULES   U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, Maryland
For his outstanding achievements as a physician scientist in vaccinology at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.  Lt. Col. Regules completed his specialty training at Ft. Sam Houston , and started his scientific endeavors as an infectious disease physician  at USAMRIID .  After deploying to Iraq, he transitioned to the Malaria Vaccine Branch at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), where he led a groundbreaking study that examined a fractional dose approach that resulted in achieving 87% protection against malaria, with 90% protection at 8 months following vaccine boost.  This work has helped push the RTS,S vaccine even further into the forefront as a leading vaccine candidate against malaria.  Simultaneously, Lt. Col. Regules also initiated the first ever human vaccine trial of the rVSV-Ebola vaccine, leading a multicenter collaborative study between WRAIR and the NIH, and completed the study in 72 days during the largest Ebola outbreak in history.  This study was pivotal as it eventually led to the phase 3 study in Guinea showing potential protective efficacy against Ebola virus infection.

Captain John-Paul P. Adrian, United States Air Force, 569^th U.S. Forces Police Squadron, 86^th. Mission Support Group, 86^th. Airlift Wing, Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany
Captain John-Paul P. Adrian has distinguished himself as Operations Officer, 569th United States Forces Police Squadron, 86th Mission Support Group, 86th Airlift Wing, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. While deployed as the Technical Support Team Officer, Office of Defense Cooperation, Pakistan, Captain Adrian’s leadership was vital to the Pakistan Military’s implementation of new security concepts across their installations, culminating in the publication of two new military regulations which brought these concepts to the entire force. Additionally, he managed the unhindered operation of 45 advanced F-16 aircraft in Pakistani airspace, facilitating the Pakistan Air Force’s first use of the advanced multi-role fighter aircraft in the fight against terrorism inside the borders of Pakistan supporting Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Furthermore, his actions led to the establishment of emergency incident command during in-flight emergencies for the Pakistan advanced fighter aircraft. Finally, his leadership as Operations Officer ensured the safety and security of 53,000 United States citizens in the Kaiserslautern Military Community through effects-based air provost and security operations. The distinctive accomplishments of Captain Adrian reflect credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Dr. Dean DeLongchamp, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Dr. Dean M. DeLongchamp is recognized for outstanding federal service through his scientific accomplishments as a chemical engineer in the initiation, growth, and development of a flexible electronics research program that works closely with an emerging industry sector with products such as flexible displays, electronics on fabrics, and photovoltaic plastic sheets. Specifically, he has made significant advancements in the areas of near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and other methods that provided key criteria needed to design new organic transistor and organic photovoltaics materials. The impact of  Dr. DeLongchamp’s work can be seen from the significant interest by industry to use his research results; the synthesis of new commercial materials inspired by his work; external awards; organization of international workshops and meetings; publication citations (4000+, h-index of 33); and 70+ invited seminars. Through his scientific work, his interactions with industry, and his contributions as a reviewer and advisor to other Government agencies, Dr. DeLongchamp has had positive and lasting impact on organic electronics and photovoltaics research in the United States and around the world.

Jason Dunn, U.S. Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Environmental Enforcement Section, Washington, D.C.
Jason Dunn is recognized for his outstanding service as a DOJ senior attorney to the people and the environment of the United States through his tireless enforcement of the Clean Air Act against violations by operators of coal fired power plants. Unlawful emissions from these facilities pose risks to the environment, through degradation of forests and streams from acid rain, and to the public by subjecting sensitive segments of the population to increased risks of asthma and heart disease. For nearly his entire 13 year tenure at the Department of Justice, Mr. Dunn has been at the forefront of this enforcement initiative which, to date, has resulted in settlements that are requiring over $16 billion in new pollution controls and that will remove more than 2.4 million tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the air each year.

Joy Ferguson, U.S Department of Energy - Russia Office, Washington D.C.
Joy Ferguson served as both the Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Department of Energy (DOE) Russia Office from 2012 to 2014. During 2014 she personally shepherded several high level bilateral agreements that have been vital to the continuation and progress of the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) nonproliferation mission. She routinely represented the Department at the highest levels of both the U.S. and Russian government and industry as a diplomat and a technical expert. She supported negotiations of two new agreements: the U.S.-Russia Research & Development Agreement, and the Protocol and Implementing Agreement to the Multilateral Nuclear and Environmental Program in the Russian Federation. Her contributions to these negotiations provided the framework needed to continue important nuclear security cooperation with Russia following the expiration of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Agreement. Ms. Ferguson provided DOE headquarters with critical analysis, insights, and recommendations on implementation of DOE/NNSA programs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She excelled in this assignment, adapted to a tough environment, and was an extremely valuable resource for DOE and NNSA.

Alessandro Ferruci, U.S. Census Bureau, Innovation & Technology Office, Suitland, Maryland
Mr. Ferrucci is nominated for his significant accomplishments as Lead Computer Scientist over the past year for the Census Bureau, both domestically and internationally, related to system engineering and data collection activities. His outstanding efforts were a major contributing factor in the historical completion of the population censuses for both Kenya and Bangladesh. Mr. Ferrucci was also instrumental in the inception of the Census Image Retrieval Application for the 2010 Decennial Census; the creation of a state-of- the-art color drop out and de-skewing system for data collection; and, the development of a real-time operational control system for both the enumeration and the mapping and listing collection components. Further, Mr. Ferrucci's research and engineering efforts related to the creation of a Bureau-wide Data Collection Eco-System have been critical as the Census Bureau embarks on preparations for the 2020 Census and other population censuses abroad.

Bridget Fitzpatrick, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C.
Bridget Fitzpatrick has had outstanding success as Supervisory Trial Counsel in trying some of the Securities and Exchange Commission's most noteworthy legal cases. Most recently, in 2014, She led the trial team that obtained a favorable jury verdict against the Wyly brothers for fraudulently concealing securities trading through a complex web of offshore trusts. She unraveled the defendants' scheme and presented a compelling case to the jury, showing that the Wylys use of offshore trusts was just a sham to hide their trading in the securities of publicly- held companies in which they held significant interests. Ms. Fitzpatrick also successfully offered the court a novel theory for measuring the defendants' unlawful gains by looking to the amount of U.S. taxes they avoided by buying and selling offshore. Not only did that provide a basis for a judgment of hundreds of millions of dollars against the Wylys, but it also serves as a valuable deterrent and warning to others who might try to hide their securities transactions by conducting them offshore.

Dr. Joshua A. Hagen, U.S Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
Dr. Joshua A. Hagen distinguished himself as Research Materials Engineer, Molecular Signatures Program, Human Signatures Branch, Human Centered Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Division, Human Effectiveness Directorate, 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, from 28 February 2011 to 31 December 2014. Dr. Hagen has greatly improved the health and performance of Airmen and other warfighters through the development of a suit of wearable sensors to serve as the equivalent of a human dashboard. His accomplishments have been focused on two fronts: improving the performance of a healthy warfighter and improving the care of an injured warfighter by improving the ability of healthcare providers to monitor patients in austere environments. Dr. Hagen’s wearable, wireless, BAND-AID® like sensors are a phenomenal improvement over existing technology alternatives dramatically improving the current state of the art in this field. He is the go-to subject matter expert for wearable sensors due to his significant accomplishments and achievements in rapidly transitioning research into prototypes and resources for inclusion in development of new programs. The distinctive accomplishments of Dr. Hagen reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Katherine Helmick, U.S. Army – MRMC Defense Centers of Excellence for PH/TBI, Silver Spring, Maryland
Ms. Katherine Helmick serves as the Deputy Director for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center overseeing the staff within Research, Education and Clinical Affairs divisions and Chief of Staff. In 2014, she led and provided the necessary vision for the development of the novel clinical recommendation entitled "Progressive Return to Activity Following Acute Concussion/Mild Traumatic Brain Injury." Ms. Helmick championed the effort to transform a vast quantity of civilian and wartime 1essons learned and clinical experience into the first of its kind, stepwise guidelines for providers to return concussed patients back to duty with a supervised, logical, and medically sound approach. This clinical recommendation includes guidance for the primary care provider and rehabilitation specialist as well as training materials to ensure that they understand and are able to easily execute the content. Available to the Military Health System, as well the entire medical community at large, the "Progressive Return to Activity Following Acute Concussion/Mild Traumatic Brain Injury” has been praised by the TBI community as having a monumental impact on patient recovery.

Dr. David Miller, U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. David Miller is a force of innovative leadership as Technical Director the Department of Energy's Carbon Capture Simulation Initiative (CCSI). The Initiative is providing an essential and much needed capability to improve the development of carbon capture and related technologies. The multi­disciplinary team that he guides spans several institutions across the United States and has successfully created, and continues to advance, innovative computational tools and models to accelerate the scale-up and deployment of cost-effective carbon capture technologies. Since the inception of the project, Dr. Miller has led the technical team to develop the CCSI Toolset, a set of computational tools that allows industry to more rapidly develop, scale-up, and deploy carbon capture technologies. The initial release in October 2012 was a full year ahead of schedule due to industry demand, and the subsequent releases - the latest in October 2014 - have received positive feedback and were immediately adopted by industry. Dr. Miller's continued leadership of CCSI will greatly improve the ability of U.S. companies to develop cost-effective carbon capture and related technologies.

Lara A. Schoenenberger, U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas
Ms. Lara A. Schoenenberger distinguished herself as Section Chief, Contingency Construction at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Joint Base San Antonio, Lackland, Texas. She led a team of 33 military, civilian and government support contractor personnel supporting United States and Coalition military members by directing reconstruction efforts across Afghanistan. She managed the construction of the $171 million Afghan Ministry of Defense complex that will house the National Military Command Center and includes 10 additional facilities with supporting infrastructure. This capstone project will enable national military autonomy for the Afghan Government and facilitate the drawdown of Coalition support. Additionally, Ms. Schoenenberger  led 8 other construction projects worth more than $400 million, significantly increasing the capacity of the Afghan National Police, Army and Air Corps and which were vital in enabling the first peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan’s history. Her strategic vision and interpersonal skills enabled her to partner with two supporting agencies and streamline the Civil Engineer Center’s contract award cycle, cutting 10 days from the normal 140 day timeline.

P. Benjamin Smith, Indian Health Service, Office of Tribal Governance, Rockville, Maryland
Mr. Benjamin Smith demonstrates exceptional leadership as the Director of the Office of Tribal Self-Governance (OTSG) for the Indian Health Service (IHS). His leadership has ensured the success of the IHS Tribal Self-Governance Program in which over 350 Tribes participate, either directly or through Tribal Organizations and Inter-Tribal consortia. The Tribal Self-Governance Program has proven to have a significant positive impact on the health and well-being of participating Tribal communities. Mr. Smith's commitment and dedication to the successful implementation of the IHS Self-Governance program in the IHS led to the construction of an effective Self-Governance office within the IHS and the establishment of an IHS culture with enhanced business practices to prioritize and strengthen the government-to­-government partnership with American Indian and Alaska Native Governments.

Daniel Tenny, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, Washington D.C.
Daniel Tenny joined the Appellate Staff of the Department of Justice's Civil Division in 2009.  He has proved himself to be an appellate attorney of the highest order and has achieved victories in some of the Department's most important and sensitive appellate cases. Mr. Tenny has been one of the principal architects of the federal government's successful challenges to state laws that impose restrictions on undocumented aliens that are preempted by federal law. He has defended measures that protect the public health and safety, including his successful defense of the Tobacco Control Act of 2010 and recently persuaded an en banc court of appeals to broadly sustain government authority to require manufacturers to disclose relevant information to consumers. Mr. Tenny has consistently displayed an unparalleled ability to evaluate a complex legal problem. distil its essence and present the government's position in a manner so compelling that its merit cannot be denied. His federal service also includes a clerkship with Judge David Tatel on the D.C. Circuit and a Supreme Court clerkship with Justice David Souter.

Dr. Christopher B. Cornelissen, Department of the Navy, Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California
For his outstanding achievements as Director of the Medical & Surgical Simulation Center while spearheading Navy Medicine’s efforts to develop the first healthcare simulation center combining cadaveric and mannequin-based training modalities within a military medical treatment facility.  Dr. Cornelissen has inspired and led a multidisciplinary team of stakeholders, building a sustainable healthcare simulation platform, serving graduate medical education, physicians, nurses, and corpsmen who deploy, in support of Navy Medicine expeditionary medical platforms to train those who care for ill or injured service members.  He realized the necessity to proactively equip, staff, and sustain a regional simulation center of excellence by authoring the proposal and serving as program manager for Navy Wounded, III, and Injured funds allocated to healthcare simulation.  Proactively working within the enterprise, he promoted the allocation of resources to equip smaller simulation centers throughout the Navy Medicine West region.  A visionary educator, he forged collaborative academic ties between Naval Medical Center San Diego, Naval Postgraduate School and the Uniformed Services University to create an online technology in simulation course module.

Dr. Francesca Cunningham, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Pharmacy Benefits Management Services in Hines, IL
For her exceptional leadership as the Associate Chief Consultant of the Center for Medication Safety (VAMedSAFE) and Program Manager for Pharmacoepidemiologic and Outcomes Research for the VA Pharmacy Benefits Management Services (PBM). Since the inception of VAMedSAFE, Dr. Cunningham's leadership has grown the program into a comprehensive pharmacovigilance center dedicated to monitoring agency-wide practices for safe and effective medication use to identify and develop quality improvement and safety efforts that determine the clinical impact of formulary decisions on the VA system nationwide as well as address drug related safety and appropriate prescribing issues within the VHA. Dr. Cunningham's vision and support of creative solutions has resulted in the development of innovative medication safety programs. She has championed the use of integrated databases for VHA-wide drug safety surveillance and risk reduction initiatives. In addition, her safety programs were the first within the PBM to adopt the use of web-based applications. These applications allow for select high risk medication safety initiatives as well as centralization and standardization, of adverse drug event reporting throughout the VHA health care system. Such efforts have enabled Dr. Cunningham to create new processes to evaluate the significance of known adverse drug events as well as emerging drug safety issues for the purpose of optimizing medication safety in the Veteran population.

Major Christopher Genelin, US Air Force Technical Applications Center, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida
In recognition of his distinguished service as Deputy Chief, Operational Test and Transition Division while assigned to the Air Force Technical Applications Center with duty under the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Directorate for Science & Technology, in leading a 17-member joint team of military, civilian, and government support contractors to provide planning, execution, and management of 22 national classified technical development programs worth $59 million.  He developed and demonstrated a persistent global surveillance system capable of operating in a maritime environment.  The prototype system was the first of its kind, and incorporated an electro-optical sensor paired with a satellite data exfiltration path integrated onto an unmanned surface vehicle.  Additionally, Maj. Genelin translated warfighter requirements from Headquarters Air Force, Navy, Department of Defense, and other government agencies and was responsible for the development, testing, and fielding of national priority technical programs, filling urgent technical gaps for the intelligence community.  Finally, he managed a $45 million Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, a rapid response prototype laboratory, 15 Department of Defense maritime vessels, and 6,000 intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets. 

Dr. Suzanne Meredith Gilboa, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities in Atlanta, Georgia
For her accomplishments as a research epidemiologist and outstanding leader within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, working to protect and promote the health of pregnant women and babies. Dr. Gilboa’s commitment to maternal and child health was solidified during her two years as a US Peace Corps volunteer in rural Nicaragua, where she worked closely with local health workers. Currently, she leads a group of researchers and public health practitioners to better understand the modifiable causes of birth defects and to develop and disseminate innovative strategies for primary and secondary prevention. She has made significant contributions to the recognition of risk factors for birth defects—such as diabetes and obesity, selected prescription and over-the-counter medications, and exposure to occupational or environmental hazards during early pregnancy. Four of Dr. Gilboa’s first- or co- authored manuscripts have been recognized with CDC’s Charles C. Shepard Science Award nominations; one of her first-authored papers received a CDC’s Statistical Science Award Honorable Mention.

Dr. Emanuel H. Knill, US Department of Commerce, National Institute for Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado
For his remarkable accomplishments as a NIST Fellow in the Applied and Computational Mathematics Division of the Information Technology Laboratory.   Dr. Emanuel Knill is one of the world’s leading theorists in the field of quantum information science and engineering.  An emerging discipline at the intersection of physics and computer science, quantum information is likely to revolutionize science and technology in the same way that lasers, electronics, and computers did in the 20th century. Dr. Knill has developed some of the essential mathematical foundations for exploring the unique rules of quantum mechanics which govern atomic-scale systems to enable the development of novel computing devices with phenomenal increases in information storage and processing capability. His groundbreaking research in the theory of quantum optics, quantum error correction, quantum state tomography, quantum computer benchmarking, and quantum algorithms is providing essential guidance to the experimental physics community as it works to create a new age of quantum engineering.

Dr. Dmitry N. Kosterev, Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, Oregon
For his overall vision and technical guidance as an electrical engineer with the Bonneville Power Administration’s nationally recognized synchrophasor project.  In 2013, BPA completed the installation of its unparalleled synchrophasor network, part of a three-year, $30 million investment. BPA’s synchrophasor network is the only one in North America designed to take split-second control actions when it detects a problem on the electrical grid. The network of devices transmits precise power system readings (including current, frequency, and voltage) 60 times each second to BPA’s control centers, providing operators an unprecedented view of the power system’s dynamic state.  Thanks to Dr. Kosterev’s technical vision, expertise and leadership, BPA is now collecting 137,000 grid status measurements every second, which are processed in real time to detect grid vulnerabilities and alert power system operators if the power system is at risk. Dr. Kosterev’s work has not only helped create a more efficient electrical grid, it is directly related to system stability and reliability. The resulting improvement to system performance benefits the entire Western Electric Coordination Council region, helping ensure a reliable power system and advancing the integration of carbon-free renewable resources.

Dr. Robert Jay Lederman, Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland
In recognition of his successful pursuit of new medical strategies too risky for industry investment as a senior investigator for the Institute. Dr. Lederman introduced radiation-free MRI catheterization into clinical practice at NIH. Knowing that radiation is especially dangerous for children, he cultivated a close relationship with cardiologists at Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, D.C. Ultimately this led NHLBI to install a MRI catheterization suite at CNMC, which already enables pediatric cardiologists to diagnose and treat children more accurately and with less radiation. Among his numerous inventions, Dr. Lederman developed a non-surgical technique to tighten leaky mitral valves in patients with failing hearts, in “cerclage annuloplasty.” For leaky tricuspid valves caused by lung and congenital heart diseases, he “breaks out” of the heart from within, to surround the heart with a supportive band inside the pericardial sac. He broke another taboo, poking a hole in the aorta from the neighboring vena cava, to permit transcatheter aortic valve replacement in patients with no other options. Collaborators at Henry Ford Hospital have used this “caval-aortic” lifesaving method in more than a dozen patients so far.

Dr. Igor L. Medintz, US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C.
For his vision and dedication as a research biologist which have established him as a world-recognized leader in the growing field of bionanotechnology. Dr. Medintz is one of the Naval Research Laboratory’s leading scientists engaged in bionanotechnology. Under the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the Department of Defense is tasked with developing new materials by functionally integrating biological molecules with nanoparticles to provide breakthroughs in biosensing, nanomedicine, and energy harvesting for enhancing warfighter capabilities and battle system components. He is one of the very few who realized at an early point the technological importance of such bio-nano hybrids and the role the interface between these two materials plays in defining the biological function. One of the most important achievements of Dr. Medintz is his elucidation of how quantum dots (a special type of nanoparticle) transfer energy with other nanoparticles and bio/organic molecules. He has demonstrated that such nanoscale assemblies can lead to biosensors capable of monitoring the chemical states within a single human. Sensing and understanding biological function at a single cell level, can lead to a better understanding of diseases and hence enable developments of new treatments.

Dr. Carole A. Parent, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland
For her pioneering achievements as a senior investigator with NCI. Dr. Parent is a world-leading expert in the field of directed cell migration. She has identified novel mechanisms used by cells to communicate with each other as they move in a concerted fashion towards a chemical attractant, a process that underlies fundamentally important processes occurring during embryonic development, responses to infection, and cancer metastasis. Dr. Parent’s success results from her study of diverse but complementary model systems in parallel, placing a strong emphasis on live cell imaging and cutting edge molecular reporters, and performed in close collaboration with physicists. When combined with the sophisticated tools and assays currently available to biochemists and cell biologists, this very unique approach allows Dr. Parent to focus on specific molecules in the context of complex pathways, and on single cells in the context of tissues and organs. Her pioneering contributions to defining the intricacies of single and group cell migration have greatly advanced our understanding of the root causes of major public health challenges including developmental defects, chronic infections, chronic wounds, and various facets of cancer.

Dr. Thomas T. Perkins, US Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado
For creating unprecedented new ways, as a physicist, to precisely measure and manipulate the key molecules of life (DNA, RNA, proteins) under real world biological conditions for the first time, through innovative, multidisciplinary programs combining atomic force microscopy (AFM), laser physics, molecular biology, and advanced electronics. Dr. Perkins’ leadership has led to the invention of new AFM systems 100 times more stable and sensitive than the previous world’s best. He achieved this remarkable improvement in the wet, warm environment needed to measure the molecules of life under natural conditions, rather than in a vacuum near absolute zero required by previous AFMs.  Dr. Perkins’ work has revealed new details about the structure and function of DNA, RNA, and proteins in natural environments for the first time, providing knowledge to engineer more effective medical diagnostics and treatments.  He leads partnerships with industry to transfer advanced AFM and related technologies to develop new research and measurement tools for molecular biology. Mindful of the future, he mentors and trains the next generation of young scientists to pioneer new research and measurement technologies working in industry, universities, and national laboratories.

Ms. Angeline Purdy, J.D., US Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division in Washington, DC
In recognition of her extraordinary record of accomplishments in civil litigation as a senior attorney on behalf of the U.S. and its agencies. Ms. Purdy has achieved significant success in some of the Environment Division’s most challenging cases through her defense of government programs that have far-reaching impacts on the daily lives of U.S. citizens. The hallmark of her work is her meticulous research, thoughtful analysis, crisp and persuasive writing, and masterful oral argument. Marshaling those extraordinary skills, Ms. Purdy has successfully defended the constitutionality of a fundamental and vital element of EPA’s Superfund enforcement and cleanup programs, the science underlying EPA’s determination that emissions of greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, and numerous other government initiatives to protect human health and the environment. She also was a member of a team that presented so devastating an attack on a State’s $4 billion natural resource damage claim against the U.S. that the State chose to dismiss the claim with prejudice before trial.

Dr. Kenneth L. Senior II, US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC
For his innovative and significant contributions and leadership as a mathematician, engineer, and Section Head of Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Space Systems Development Department. Dr. Kenneth L. Senior II is internationally known for the development of major advances in techniques and algorithms for time keeping, system synchronization and determination of precise Global Positioning System (GPS) Time. By creatively combining data from disparate systems’ output whose performance varies with clock type, measurement interval, environmental parameters, and even the relativistic relationships with other system elements he was able to recursively estimate clock noise in the presence of system dynamics and operational parameters to a degree not previously possible.  This knowledge provides the basis for unprecedented system accuracies thereby increasing military and civilian positioning and navigation, communications, and data fusion capabilities. 

Dr. David Bray, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Washington DC
For exceptional achievements throughout a distinguished government career, beginning with the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where he led their technology response to 9/11 and anthrax, and then coordinated the program’s response to West Nile virus, SARS, and other outbreaks.  Dr. Bray later pursued a PhD focused on improving government response to disruptive events and voluntarily deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 to assist ISAF and USFOR-A generals in “thinking differently” on strategic efforts in the region.  He then joined the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington DC, where he has pioneered national information sharing and protection efforts across the defense, intelligence, law enforcement, homeland security, and diplomatic communities.  Most recently, as Principal Strategist and Staff Director for the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Dr. Bray has provided distinguished service in coordinating the review efforts among 12 Congressionally-appointed bipartisan Commissioners and the Executive Branch.

Dr. Leticia Pibida, National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, MD
For her tireless efforts, as a Research Physicist with NIST in Gaithersburg, MD, to ensure that the Nation’s security and first response communities have the radiation detection equipment they need, designed to the highest standards and for the intended users in their continuing efforts to guard the nation against radiological and nuclear threats on U.S. soil.  Dr. Pibida organized experts and users to develop missing, needed standards and, where test programs were missing, she developed the techniques, protocols and infrastructure to establish them.  She established a sustained testing program in response to the evolving equipment needs of the over 50,000 federal, state, local, and tribal agents.  Dr. Pibida’s leadership has earned high praise across federal agencies, including Department of Homeland Security test directors, Department of Energy test personnel, and Department of Defense standards leaders, for reaching across agency lines to develop needed standards and validation procedures for radiation protection.

Amy O’Hara, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington DC
In recognition of her outstanding leadership, as Assistant Center Chief for Research in the Census Bureau in Washington DC, in addressing the legal, policy, and methodological issues surrounding the expanded use of administrative records data in federal statistics. Administrative records are data collected by federal agencies for programmatic purposes, such as tax or public health care administration.  Throughout her federal career, Ms. O’Hara has developed innovative research programs integrating administrative records data into Census Bureau statistical methods and products, defining methods to measure whether and how administrative data can reduce respondent burden, lower data collection costs, and improve data quality throughout the Bureau.  She led the first national analysis of administrative records coverage using 2010 Census data, linking billions of records from 8 federal agencies to the decennial census.  The success of Ms. O’Hara’s endeavors will benefit the agency and federal statistical system for years to come.

Dr. Philip Puxley, National Science Foundation, Washington DC
For demonstrating his exceptional skill in program management with unusual leadership, vision, and dedication to the U.S. scientific community, as Program Director with the National Science Foundation in Washington DC.  Dr. Puxley has played a pivotal role in the management of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a major National Science Foundation project that is a significant contribution to the world’s research infrastructure. The technical and managerial oversight of ALMA, a scientific facility with no equivalent or precedent, alone would be a considerable task.  However, Dr. Puxley also faced the organizational challenge of solidifying a new international partnership among disparate participants, including the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, and Taiwan, who all contribute finances and equipment to the project.  He has participated in every facet of this complex, global undertaking, and has taken the lead in numerous critical aspects of the international program management.  His efforts have secured a leadership position for the National Science Foundation in international science, engineering and education, and have resulted in a fundamental contribution to the U.S. scientific community.

Kathryn Hellings, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice, Washington DC
For her remarkable accomplishments as a litigator and manager in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.  Ms. Hellings has been a lead prosecutor on major international cartel investigations and prosecutions of multi-national firms and executives.  She has successfully prosecuted major international airlines for price fixing, affecting billions of dollars of air transportation commerce, and is currently prosecuting a series of automobile parts suppliers in what has been recognized as the largest investigation and series of cases in the history of the Antitrust Division.  To date, Ms. Hellings’s efforts in the airline and auto parts prosecutions have resulted in the United States obtaining several billion dollars in criminal fines and dozens of high-level executives have been convicted of price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation crimes, and sentenced to more than a decade in jail terms.

Kathryn Macdonald, Environment & Natural Resource Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
For her unprecedented accomplishments, as Senior Attorney in the Environment and Natural Resource Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, in protecting our Nation’s environment and enhancing the quality of life in several communities.  In St. Louis, Ms. Macdonald negotiated the largest Clean Water Act settlement ever, a historic consent decree that, annually, will eliminate 13 billion gallons of raw sewage overflows.  The estimated cost of the improvements is $4.7 billion over 23 years; these improvements include investments in Green Infrastructure and other cutting-edge projects that will benefit disadvantaged communities, transform numerous vacant lots to productive use, and prevent sewage back-ups into homes.  In Idaho, Ms. Macdonald’s work as lead litigation counsel led to settlements recovering $760 million to clean pollution and restore natural resources in the Coeur d’Alene basin, an area which had been contaminated by a century of silver mining and smelting.

Francesca Ugolini, Tax Division, Department of Justice, Washington DC.
For compiling an exceptional record of accomplishments as an appellate attorney in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.  Ms. Ugolini has a special talent for grasping, and presenting with remarkable clarity, the most complicated issues arising in federal tax cases.  Her presentation enables appellate judges  - who typically are not tax specialists – to fully comprehend both the substance and the correctness of the government’s position.  Thanks to her efforts, the government has saved in excess of a billion dollars of tax revenue.  Ms. Ugolini represented the government in an abusive tax shelter case known as “Castle Harbor,” described by a commentator as “breathtakingly complex,” in which she secured a reversal of the district court’s judgment.  In another case – after she achieved a reversal of an adverse decision of the Tax Court – the Chief Judge of the Third Circuit telephoned Ms. Ugolini’s supervisor to praise her oral argument as the best he had ever seen in his 17 years on the bench.

Dr. Timothy Persons, United States Government Accountability Office, Washington DC
For his sustained excellence as Chief Scientist of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington DC, in reestablishing a technology assessment function in the legislative branch and providing the Congress with outstanding scientific and technical professional expertise on such cutting-edge subjects as: nanomanufacturing; freshwater conservation technologies; nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship; defense electronics supply chain security; climate engineering technologies; next-generation nuclear detection and non-intrusive imaging systems; and advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms.  Responding to Congressional interest in reestablishing the technology assessment reporting once done by the Office of Technology Assessment, Dr. Persons has spear-headed efforts to build a staff and establish processes and procedures for undertaking such specialized work at GAO.  Prior to joining GAO, Dr. Persons had already firmly established his credentials in key leadership roles at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Dr. Joel Ullom, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce, Boulder, CO.
In recognition of his exceptional accomplishments as a physicist with the Quantum Electronics and Photonics Division of the Precision Measurement Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado.  Dr. Ullom developed and deployed a revolutionary new type of high-resolution radiation detector to solve important national measurement problems related to nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear forensics, and advanced materials analysis.  Exploiting the unique properties of superconductivity, Dr. Ullom significantly advanced the science of radiation detection by creating instrumentation with unprecedented sensitivity.  The improved resolving power of his detectors – more than a factor of 10 better than any previously available – provides new capabilities to detect and analyze radiation from nuclear sources, gamma rays and alpha particles, and, for the first time, enables accounting for the full range of nuclear isotopes with sufficient accuracy and precision to detect loss of any significant quantity of weapons grade material and to clearly discriminate that radiation from that of benign material which Is otherwise indistinguishable using conventional detectors.

Michal Chojnacky, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, MD.
In recognition of her remarkable achievements as a physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  Ms. Chojnacky has translated laboratory research in temperature measurement to public health clinics and primary care physician offices to help ensure the potency of over $3.6 billion of vaccines distributed each year through programs, such as Vaccines for Children, administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Studies suggest that as much as one third of all distributed vaccines may have experienced temperatures outside specification, corresponding to a potential loss of $1.2 billion for the CDC program alone.  By scientifically evaluating the CDC cold-chain management system under conditions that replicate everyday practices of vaccine providers,  Ms. Chojnacky developed a suite of tools and training materials, such as the CDC vaccine toolkit, that are dramatically improving vaccine storage, handling, and monitoring.  With the adoption of Ms. Chojnacky’s results internationally, her impact will be magnified, since the distribution of almost $27 billion of vaccines annually will benefit from improved temperature monitoring and control.

Dr. Paul Jablonski, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington DC
In recognition of his accomplishments as the chief metallurgist of the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Washington DC, in the development of a novel platinum-chromium alloy for use in manufacturing the next generation of coronary stents.  Developed under Dr. Jablonski’s supervision, in collaboration with scientists from Boston Scientific Corporation, the platinum-chromium alloy is the first stainless steel formulation with a significant concentration of a highly radiopaque element (platinum) making it easier for coronary specialists to see the stent in the catheter during insertion, placement, and expansion.  This alloy also increases stents’ corrosive resistance, strength and flexibility – all of which offer positive benefit to patients and cardiovascular surgeons alike.  The stents have rapidly gained acceptance with a 45% market share in the United States and 33% worldwide, with global sales of over $4 billion.  The development of this technology in partnership with Boston Scientific represents a stellar example of industry-government collaboration and technology transfer, and illustrates how the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s expertise in improving materials can improve lives.

Dr. Kathryn Beers, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, MD.
For her outstanding service as a supervisory chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in research innovations in controlled polymer synthesis, microfluidic technology for the production and analysis of new materials, and creative approaches to advance green polymer chemistry.  Dr. Beers’ work is distinguished by a unique and powerful combination of sophisticated polymer synthesis methods and advanced analytical methods, which enables the creation of new materials and the ability to investigate and optimize these complex materials with extraordinary control.  These innovations have provided new routes to advanced biomaterials, enabled characterization of fundamental descriptors of co-polymers, and significantly advanced the ability to model and predict mass distributions in enzyme-catalyzed polymerizations.

Dr. Gretchen Campbell, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, MD
For her pioneering accomplishments as a physicist in the emerging field of atomtronics at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  The latter part of the 20^th century saw the advent of ultra-cold atoms as a new form of matter with remarkable quantum properties.  Among the dreams for this new material was the possibility of making atom circuits in analogy to electrical circuits, in which the flow of atoms would be analogous to the flow of electrons.  Dr. Campbell’s work has turned the dream into a reality.  In a seminal experiment she created a superfluid ring of atoms, using laser light as the “wire” through which atoms flow, and as the control element.  In an additional, pioneering experiment, she rotated the control element around the ring, creating a device in which the atoms “sense” rotation.  Dr. Campbell’s work, which continues at an accelerating pace, has received international attention, inspiring similar experiments by researchers around the world, and is opening new avenues of fundamental research with potential applications in sensors, metrology, and devices with new kinds of functionality.

2011 Award Winners

DR. CRAIG BROWN
National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce
Dr. Brown has contributed to our understanding of new materials suited for hydrogen energy storage in next-generation, clean automobiles. His work and findings address one of the largest obstacles in the road to the hydrogen economy, namely the development of safe, practical storage systems that operate at room temperature. Dr. Brown’s ground-breaking research on hydrogen storage through physisorption on high surface area materials recently earned him a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He has also contributed significantly to the scientific success of numerous NCNR users as an instrument scientist on the Disk Chopper Spectrometer, the world’s most successful neutron scattering instrument over the last decade.

CAPTAIN JOSHUA BURGER
US Air Force
In 2011 Capt Burger was specifically selected as program manager and engineer for the rapid reaction integration and deployment of unmanned surface vehicles equipped with gamma radiation detectors to determine safe stand-off distance for US Navy vessels in response to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. His efforts reduced risk to US Navy vessels and provided a previously unavailable unmanned radiation detection capability to the Navy. The preceding 7 years of his Navy career were marked by significant achievements in leadership of the testing and deployment of a Human Presence Detection System, and resolving safety and landing platform safety issues for Air Force, Army, and Royal Air Force aircraft.

DR. TUCKER McELROY
Census Bureau, US Department of Commerce
Dr. McElroy has developed novel statistical methodologies to address significant problems in seasonal adjustment, forecasting, and time series analysis. Seasonal adjustment takes into account recurring seasonal fluctuations, in areas such as retail sales and employment during holiday periods, which are critical to the evaluation of potential government actions to improve the economy. Internationally recognized, Dr. McElroy’s published achievements on the theory of signal extraction and model misspecification have been implemented in the X-12-ARIMA software program of the Census Bureau which has been used in central banks and statistical agencies around the world. His recent work has improved X-12-ARIMA’s model selection methods and extended it to treat time series data of mingled sampling frequency.

DR. NATHAN NEWBURY
National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce
Dr. Newbury has invented and applied fiber-laser frequency combs to address some of the world’s most challenging research problems, including subhertz optical spectroscopy, high frequency metrology, nanometer-precision distance ranging, and ultra-high bandwidth communications. He transformed a powerful technology into a practical, turnkey solution with his creation of an entirely new class of frequency combs – the fiber-laser frequency comb. Building on this innovation, he pioneered critically important metrology tools to advance fundamental knowledge in an impressive range of areas – from the dual frequency comb spectroscopy technique for both ultra-high resolution gas detection and dynamic laser characterization, to an ultra-precise laser ranging technique for studying distant objects. His research is being replicated worldwide and contributes to advances in climate change science, precision time-keeping, and semiconductor manufacturing.

DR. LEONARD TENDER
Naval Research Laboratory, US Navy
Dr. Tender is the Department of Defense’s leading science and technology expert in the field of bioelectrochemical systems, processes in which micro-organisms are used to catalyze electrode reactions. While he is recognized worldwide as an expert in the basic science of this field, of particular note here is his pioneering work in applied science and engineering relating to his development of the benthic microbial fuel cell. Benthic microbial fuel cells generate power directly from organic matter residing in marine sediment and are being developed to enable indefinite operation of remotely deployed oceanographic sensors, which are important to the various science agencies of the Department of Defense and the nation. In 2011, Dr. Tender was awarded a US Patent for his demonstration of the benthic microbial fuel cell as a viable technology.

DR. TOM MISTELI
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Misteli has pioneered the field of genome cell biology by developing imaging methods to visualize the genome in living cells. His work has led to several important conceptual advances in our fundamental understanding of genome function and has practical application in biomedicine. Dr. Misteli’s methodologies have enabled him to characterize molecular mechanisms involved in the progression of genome cancer, as well as to discover novel human aging mechanisms and to invent a diagnostic strategy for cancer detection based on cell biological properties of the human genome.

DR. TILL ROSENBAND
National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce
With the invention of the world’s first “logic clock”, which took less than three years compared to the decade or more required for previous atomic clock development, Dr. Rosenband’s technologies have vastly improved quantum computing research. He has demonstrated the clock as the world’s most accurate atomic clock, with an uncertainty equivalent to one second in 4 billion years and continually improving. Logic clocks can be used for exquisitely sensitive measurements of gravity, motion and other quantities, exploiting the “ticking rate" to make a new class of sensors which in turn can be used in fields as diverse as mineral exploration, inertial navigation, and new ultra-precise measurements of fundamental physics constants.

DR. CLARE WATERMAN
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Waterman is a world-leading expert in basic cell biology research. Using a quantitative microscopy method she invented, known as Fluorescent Speckle Microscopy, she has brought about major advances in our knowledge of how cells self-assemble dynamic, force-generating cytoskeletal and cell adhesion structures that physically drive vertebrate tissue cell migration. The ability of vertebrate cells to move directionally is critical to development, immune response, establishment of the vasculature, tissue maintenance, wound healing, and its regulation is compromised in cardiovascular disease and metastatic cancer.

REGINA GALER
US Department of Energy
For two years, Ms. Galer served as the Department of Energy’s Office Director at the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan and is being recognized for her outstanding contribution to international relations. In the role of Office Director, she worked diligently with various US agencies as well as domestic and international organizations to advance the US-Pakistan relationship and strengthen cooperation. Ms. Galer’s dedication and influence in the region will provide a strong diplomatic foundation for future collaboration.

ELIZABETH GENTRY
National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce
Ms. Gentry serves as the nation’s focal point for voluntary conversion to the metric system and, taking a multi-pronged approach, has led her program to multiple key successes. In her belief that the federal agencies should lead the way in introducing and using the metric system, she lends her expertise and leadership to federal agencies as they address metric conversion issues. Ms. Gentry has led a successful effort to persuade the states to amend their laws, regulations, and policies to permit manufacturers and retailers to voluntarily use metric units on their packaging. At the same time she has worked to ensure the laws of other countries continue to allow current US labeling while the transition takes place. She has also produced a broad range of educational materials about the metric system and conversion for the public-at-large, which has been enthusiastically received on all sides.

DR. MICHAEL LAUER
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Lauer has established new principles for management of a $1.7 billion program of basic, translational, and clinical cardiovascular research, playing a key role in setting the national cardiovascular agenda, and empowering his staff through creation of an active learning environment. He has pioneered use of streamlined results-based accountability in research decision-making using objective metrics, and has increased the value of large population-based studies by sharpening the focus on clinical outcomes. He has fostered research in neglected populations and neglected areas with significant public health and cost implications.

JONATHAN KANG
US Government Accountability Office
Mr. Kang has handled hundreds of bid protests over federal contracts worth tens of billions of dollars, involving topics as varied as major weapons systems, information technology, healthcare service and Medicare/Medicaid reform, and counter-terrorism and security. He has guided important and difficult decisions on procurement ethics and conflicts of interest, and written landmark decisions establishing important precedents for the federal procurement community. Mr. Kang’s reputation is such that government and private sector attorneys, as well as contracting professional, rely on his bid protest decisions in complying with procurement statutes and regulations.

2010 Award Winners

Dr. Philip E. Castle, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland
For demonstrating leadership and devotion far beyond expectations as a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of health, US Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Castle has always combined a zealous dedication to women’s health with an extraordinary quantity and quality of scientific research. Throughout his career with NCI, he has focused on the human papillomavirus (HPV) and its relationship to the development of cervical precancerous lesions and frank cancer; virtually, all cervical cancer is caused by HPV infections. There are about 500,000 incident cases of cervical cancer annually, making it the third most common female cancer, with more than 80% occurring in the developing world, where due to the absence of screening, it is often the most common cancer among women. In particular, Dr. Castle has focused his work on the natural history of HPV, with emphasis on understanding viral patterns of individual HPV genotypes and their relationship to the development of cervical pre-cancer and cancer; clinical epidemiologic and translational research, concentrating on evaluating the performance of new screening assays and clinical procedures; and service, including cooperation with federal and professional groups. He serves as one of the foremost leaders in applied cancer research, has influenced clinical guidelines, and brought forward better cervical cancer prevention tests and strategies.

Glenn T. Donovan, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Department of the Navy, Newport, Rhode Island 
In recognition of his innovative work as an electrical engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division. Mr. Donovan has developed a unique and cutting-edge method for utilizing bathymetric data to improve Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) localization and navigation. With his superior grasp of mathematics and engineering and advanced technical skills, he has an impressive ability to achieve real-world solutions that expand the state of the art. Mr. Donovan’s Inertial Navigation System Position Error Correction (INSPEC) method represents a tremendous advance, allowing an AUV to navigate accurately for longer periods without the need to surface for GPS or rely on other external support. This greatly reduces the risk to an AUV during a mission and improves vehicle endurance while reducing transit times. The INSPEC methods can also assist an AUV with tasks such as object tracking and area surveying and mapping, increasing the vehicle’s degree of autonomy.

Dr. Kenneth R. Knapp, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce, Asheville, North Carolina
For the outstanding benefits he provided to the United States as a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climate Data Center. During his seven years at NOAA, Dr. Knapp has pioneered the development of new climate-related products and tools based on long-term satellite observations of the Earth’s atmosphere. His development of Climate Data Records (CDRs) directly promoted a better and more comprehensive understanding of Earth’s climate system and enabled the scientific community to use his work as a basis to conduct other, more expansive research. Dr. Knapp’s ground-breaking work set a baseline for developing other CDRs and far surpassed the common challenges associated with transitioning research products into operational ones.

Erich H. Strassner, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce, Washington, DC
For his exemplary accomplishments as Chief of the Industry Applications Division, at the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Mr. Strassner developed a new suite of economic indicators that allow business leaders, policy makers and researchers to better understand the sources of growth and performance on an industry-by-industry basis. This expanded information is critical to understanding how the changing structure of the U.S. economy affects business decisions to integrate vertically, outsource domestically, and produce offshore, and it provides U.S. businesses with key information to better compete in a global economy. In 2010 BEA released an expanded time series on the use of capital, labor, energy, materials, and purchased services (KLEMS) by U.S. industries to produce the Nation’s output. This release culminated an effort that began in 2005 when Mr. Strassner spearheaded a major initiative by BEA and led to the adoption of KLEMS statistics. This effort paved the way for new developments in understanding sources of economic growth, industry productivity, and the impacts on U.S. GDP. KLEMS statistics have gained world-wide recognition and are now an integral component of the official U.S. productivity statistics produced by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and are widely used by the Federal Reserve Board to understand U.S. economic growth.

Dr. Timothy J. Bunning, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Material Command Department of the Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
For his distinguished leadership as Division Technical Director, Survivability and Sensor Materials Division, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Material Command. Dr. Bunning expertly led fundamental research and development of photonic materials and components to enable laser protection technologies. The advancements from his research in the fundamental liquid crystals community are indicative of his pioneering nature, which led to unique and innovative breakthroughs. Dr. Bunning’s scientific accomplishments continue to provide technologies that have significant impact on current and future operations, especially in the area of tunable filters for hardening technologies.

Dr. Scott A. Diddams, National Institute of Standards and Technology Department of Commerce, Boulder, Colorado
In recognition of his outstanding achievements as a physicist in NIST’s Time and Frequency Division. Dr. Diddams leads one of the world’s foremost research programs on precision measurements using laser frequency combs. Among the accomplishments of Dr. Diddams and his team are: the first demonstration of self-referenced laser frequency combs as precision measurement tools with Dr. John Hall of NIST, leading in part to Dr. Hall’s Nobel Prize in Physics in 2005; verification of the frequency comb technique below the 10-19 level, the most precise measurement of this kind ever made; development of the counting mechanism of the world’s best atomic clocks, based on optical transitions, that will lead to improvements in navigation and communications systems; development of massive parallel, ultra-fast spectroscopy for fingerprinting and measurement of trace gases with high precision and sensitivity; making “designer lightwaves” by synthesizing light with complete control over color, timing, intensity and other parameters, for appli- cations from improved remote sensing to better telecommunications; and new spectroscopy techniques for the detection of planets orbiting distant stars known as exoplanets.

Dr. Christopher L. Soles, National Institute of Standards and Technology Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, Maryland
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments as a supervisory materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Dr. Soles is noted for his measurements of changes in the properties of polymeric materials under states of confinement, such as in nanoscale films and nanoscale structures, and the impact of these changes on semiconductor and nanomanufacturing technology sectors. He utilized inelastic neutron scattering, x-ray reflectivity and neutron reflectivity to identify processing limits on nanoimprint lithography, to quantify interfacial effects in fuel cell membranes, and to demonstrate limitations facing next-generation resists. Dr. Soles has initiated collaborations with industry and academic partners to enhance and expand the impact of his work, and has received several significant awards, including the Presidential Early career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He maintains active leadership roles in national scientific organizations, such as the American Chemical Society and has mentored two dozen postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduate interns and a high school student.

Dr. Ian B. Spielman, National Institute of Standards and Technology Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, Maryland
For his remarkable achievements as a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Dr. Spielman has pioneered a novel approach for solving computationally intractable problems through modeling one complex quantum system by using another, more easily controllable one. His work paves the way to solve some of the most important and illusive problems in physics today, such as explaining the phenomenon of high-temperature super-conductivity. Dr. Spielman is in the vanguard of a new 21st century quantum revolution that promises to surpass the advances that spawned most of modern technology. In 2007 he used an ultra-cold atomic gas to accurately simulate a mathematical model for the change from electrical conductor to insulator. Next, Dr. Spielman showed how to make his neutral atoms behave like charged particles in electric or magnetic fields, opening a new avenue for simulation of important problems in the physics of materials. His successes have gained worldwide attention and represent only the beginning of a program for creating a better understanding of the natural world, which may lead to new technologies for this century analogous to those that defined the last.

Lisa M. Blumerman, Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, Washington, DC
For her exceptional leadership as Chief of the Governments Division, US Census Bureau, Department of Commerce. Ms. Blumerman led the institution of critical improvements in the quality, timeliness, and usability of data produced by the Census of Governments. This Census, conducted every five years, provides benchmark figures of public finance and employment; classifies local government organizations, powers and activities; and measures federal, state, and local fiscal relationships for the Nation’s 89,476 governments, made up of 39,044 general purpose governments and 50,432 special purpose districts. The Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Federal Reserve Board use the data to measure the Nations’ economic performance. State and local governments use the data to develop programs and budgets, assess financial conditions, and perform analyses. Analysts, economists, market specialists, and researchers need the data to measure the changing characteristics of the government sector of the economy and to conduct public policy research. Ms. Blumerman has led long needed major improvements in all aspects of the production of the data, resulting in higher quality data released as much as six months earlier than previously, as well as the development of important new data products.

Renee L. Camacho, Department of Justice, Las Cruces, New Mexico
For her outstanding, dedication, professionalism and self-sacrifice as an Assistant United States Attorney. Beginning in August 2009, Ms. Camacho and the Drug Enforcement Administration Las Cruces Resident Office initiated an investigation code-named “Casino Madness.” During the active phase of Casino Madness, she secured Orders to intercept 11 telephones with 12 renewals, and one consensual intercept. The investigation revealed an unusual ingredient: the organization transported cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine for two warring Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs), the Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman and the Vicente Carrillo-Fuentes DTOs. Subsequently, Ms. Camacho obtained the largest single indictment ever returned in the District of New Mexico –145 overt acts charging 43 defendants in 37 counts. In June 2010, the transportation organization was dismantled after the execution of 15 search warrants, 35 arrests, and the seizure of approximately 70 pounds of cocaine, 4 pounds of methamphetamine, 250 pounds of marijuana, and $552,540 in cash and assets.

Major Gabriel S. Hiley, Airborne Network Division, Electronics Systems Center, Department of the Air Force, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts
In recognition of his distinguished service as Program Manager, Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, Joint Urgent Operational Need, Airborne Network Division, Electronics Systems Center. Major Hiley’s exceptional leadership transitioned a $76 million prototype airborne communications system into a $524 million program, earning broad Air Force support for immediate fielding. He created and executed the plan to deploy aircraft into combat as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, with the first flight occurring only 41 days after contract award. He also deployed for 120 days with the aircraft, educating ground and airborne users, and improving Army and Air Force joint tactical communications. Major Hiley’s efforts resulted in over 1,000 aircraft sorties flown to date, providing gamechanging communications capability.

Kelly M. Lawson, Department of Labor, Boston, Massachusetts
For her skilful handling of cases as a senior trial attorney with the Office of Solicitor (SOL), Department of Labor. Throughout her tenure at SOL, Ms. Lawson has been responsible for handling major litigation cases in all areas enforced by SOL. She has handled very adroitly large numbers of demanding legal matters that span an unusually wide range of program areas, including significant cases under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, Executive Order 11246, the Davis Bacon and Related Acts, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Several of the cases she has argued successfully under these Acts were the government’s first foray into an area covered by these Acts, involving massive, complex litigation with nationwide impact. Ms. Lawson performs independently detailed analyses of complex legal and policy issues, carries out assignments without preliminary instructions and independently develops creative negotiation and litigation strategies. Besides her litigating activities, she provides valued advice and counsel to client agency personnel in the Department of Labor. 

Dr. Anthony G. Wilhelm, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce, Washington, DC
For his outstanding achievements as Deputy Associate Administrator for Infrastructure in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Department of Commerce. Dr. Wilhelm has demonstrated superb leadership during his 6 years with NTIA, in particular with two programs of critical national importance. First, he successfully directed the government’s efforts to prepare the Nation for the July 2009 transition from analog to digital television, a program which impacted almost 35 million Americans and touched many millions more. The end result of this $1.5 billion program was a 97 percent nationwide consumer awareness level and the proportion of unready households dropping from 6.8 percent to 0.5 percent. A tribute to Dr. Wilhelm’s extraordinarily successful management and implementation of this program is the fact that it is being used as a model by many other countries facing the same challenges in conversion from analog to digital television broadcasting. Secondly, in 2009 Dr. Wilhelm assumed leadership of the largest grant program in Department of Commerce history, the $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In his leadership of this program, he has exhibited extraordinary dedication, creative but practical thinking, and public service that is truly inspirational.

2009 Winners

ANGELA N. CLOWERS
U.S. General Accountability Office
For her exceptional leadership as an Acting Director at the Government Accountability Office(GAO) in Washington DC. Ms. Clowers demonstrated innovative approaches in GAO’s work responding to the economic crisis by assembling high-functioning teams to produce real-time, high-quality, objective analyses to support congressional oversight. For example, she led GAO’s reviews of the federal government’s efforts to assist the domestic auto industry under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Her work clarified the purpose and extent of the federal commitment and recommended changes likely to improve oversight of the government’s investments and protect the taxpayers’ interests. Ms. Clowers led GAO’s efforts to analyze transportation investments included in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, providing frequent progress reports and testimony to the Congress. These efforts prompted mid-course corrections by the Department of Transportation to target investments in ways most likely to stimulate the economy. Ms. Clowers outstanding work has enabled GAO to provide valuable, timely and targeted advice on the federal government’s efforts to address the economic crisis.

DR. MARLA DOWELL
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce
For her sustained exceptional leadership as a supervisory physicist of a world-leading laser metrology program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce in Boulder Colorado. Dr. Dowell leads the most comprehensive program in laser metrology of any national measurement institute in the world. Her excellent people management skills and her outstanding breadth of technical expertise have transformed NIST’s national measurement program in laser metrology and standards into an extremely effective, customer focused provider of world-leading measurement services. Dr. Dowell’s team has accelerated development of a new class of test equipment, provided measurement traceability to the semiconductor manufacturing industry with best-in-the-world accuracy for ultraviolet laser instruments, and enabled highpower laser calibrations for critical US defense programs with unique detector designs and coatings, among other accomplishments. Under her leadership her team’s success has improved greatly in all areas. In addition, Dr. Dowell serves the technical and wider communities in improvement of laser safety, documentary standards, the work environment, as well as the education of a future generation of scientists and engineers.

KANA ENOMOTO
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
For her leadership as a principal senior adviser in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services in Rockville, Maryland. Ms. Enomoto is a versatile, innovative and thoughtful federal leader with expertise spanning policy, program and administration. During her distinguished federal career, she has served as a Managing Editor of the seminal 2001 Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity and was a critical member of teams that produced White House Commission and Federal Reports on mental health. She served with distinction as a leader during the DHHS Hurricane Katrina response and recovery efforts. She was the Senior Policy Advisor to three Senate-confirmed presidential appointees and leads the agency’s portfolio on women and girls. More recently, as the Acting Deputy Administrator for the $3.4 billion DHHS public health agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Ms. Enomoto spearheaded efforts leading to measurable improvements in agency operations, human capital management and myriad management processes. In addition to her exemplary performance at work, Ms. Enomoto has made significant contributions to her community and profession.

NATALIE HARROP
US Air Force 748th, Supply Chain Management Wing, Air Force Global Logistics Center
For her distinguished service as a lead budget analyst in the US Air Force 748th, Supply Chain Management Group, 448th, Supply Chain Management Wing, Air Force Global Logistics Center at Hill AFB in Utah. During the 3 year period ending in December 2009, Ms. Harrop combined her extensive financial knowledge with her unique understanding of relational databases and web-based technologies to develop key systems which have revolutionized financial management within the Group. From the dramatic improvements in identification of available funding through systematic scrutiny of un-expensed obligations to proactive identification of payroll errors and enhanced financial reporting, Ms. Harrop has designed and executed software solutions, which have had positive impact on financial management for the organization. Specifically her efforts lead to key achievements including standardizing analytical processes across the Group and Wing, proactively preventing errors in the payroll system and creating a collaborative environment to maximize the positive impact of the logistics community. The success of Ms. Harrop’s initiatives has extended beyond the Group and is now being implemented across the Wing. The successful execution of her vision has not only saved hundreds of man-hours but has also enabled the recovery of over $5 million in available funding for reutilization in support of the warfighter.

DR. LYNN T. ANTONELLI
US Navy, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Vision
For her ground-breaking work as an electrical engineer at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, US Navy in Newport, Rhode Island. Dr. Antonelli has performed innovative work in stand-off, laser-based sensor devices, optical systems and acousto-optic sensing. With her superior grasp of physics and engineering and advanced technical skills in optics, acoustics and signal processing, she has an impressive ability to achieve real-world solutions that expand the state-of-the-art. Dr. Antonelli has demonstrated investigative skills that make her a valuable asset to Division Newport, the US Navy and the nation. Her pioneering work in the use of laser-based, acoustooptic sonar for remote detection of sound for a variety of naval, medical and commercial applications has earned her international recognition. With her intellectual curiosity, technical expertise and generous collaborative approach, Dr. Antonelli has made great strides in the advancement of ocean optics and remote sensing research. Her efforts have enabled acoustic sensing beyond the realm of traditional acoustic transducers and will have a lasting and positive impact on US Navy warfighters.

DR. STEVEN W. BROWN
National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce
For his revolutionary work as a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dr. Brown is recognized for major advances in light measurement and its applications to the environmental remote sensing of the earth. These advances include co-development of an innovative, laser-based facility for the high-accuracy calibration and characterization of optical radiation sensors. This facility is Spectral Irradiance and Radiance Calibrations using Uniform Sources—otherwise known as SIRCUS—and is revolutionizing optical radiation measurement from the infrared to the ultraviolet. Dr. Brown has also led the development of “Traveling SIRCUS”, a transportable version of the facility, to allow the calibration of sensors not easily shipped to NIST, such as ocean buoys, satellite sensors and large telescopes. These key innovations, together with other advances by Dr. Brown in light measurement, are revolutionizing the ability to detect the small decadal-scale changes in the Earth’s environment due to climate change. His discoveries are also having a broad impact on US science and technology by helping to solve key light-measurement problems in other research fields, such as optical medical imaging, solid-state lighting, non-contact thermometry, and fundamental physics.

DR. JOHN KITCHING
National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce
In recognition of his outstanding achievements as a supervisory physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, department of Commerce in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Kitching leads the world’s foremost research program to develop ultra-miniature devices that are bringing atomic measurement to a wide range of applications. Companies are already commercializing devices based on his pioneering work. He is the scientific leader of an interdisciplinary team with expertise in laser physics, atomic physics, and microelectronics. Dr. Kitching and his team are developing significant new technologies. Among these are: chip scale atomic clocks the size of a grain of rice that outperform other small time and frequency references by a factor of at least 1,000 and are capable of improving GPS positioning accuracy, telecommunications and other time-critical applications; chip-scale atomic magnetometers with sensitivity 10,000 greater than other portable magnetometers, which are capable of detecting concealed weapons and potentially providing new forms of medical imaging based on the magnetic fields generated by heart and brain activity; ultra-miniature gyroscopes with navigation-grade performance, capable of replacing current technologies that are 200 times as large and use 100 times the power; and a pea-sized laser spectrometer that could be used for ultra-sensitive chemical “fingerprinting” to detect and identify toxins for security and health purposes, such as monitoring pollutants and greenhouse gases.

DR. DIETRICH LEIBFRIED
National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce
For his outstanding accomplishments as a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Leibfried is one of NIST’s leading scientists engaged in the Nation’s foremost research program to develop a practical quantum computer. Quantum computers seek to exploit the strange properties of quantum mechanics to develop computers vastly more powerful than today’s best digital supercomputers for nationally important applications, such as encrypting and decrypting information, predicting the properties of new materials, drugs, and electronic devices that depend upon complex, interacting physical effects, understanding complicated nonlinear processes such as the weather and the climate, and analyzing subtle connections among vast databases of complex information. Dr. Leibfried is responsible for many research innovations in quantum computing, especially for conceiving and experimentally demonstrating the so-called “geometric phase gate”, an extremely versatile and productive way to make a quantum bit (qubit), the basic computing element of a quantum computer. He and his team have used the geometric phase gate to demonstrate a long string of world’s firsts and best—often both at the same time—in quantum computing research, culminating in the 2009 demonstration of a simple, fully programmable quantum computer incorporating all the criteria generally recognized for a scalable, practical quantum computer. Dr. Leibfried’s research ensures US leadership in the on-going quest to develop high-performance quantum computers.

DR. SHYAM K. SHARAN
National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute – Center for Cancer Research, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
In recognition of his superior accomplishments as a Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute- Center for Cancer Research, Department of Health and Human Services in Bethesda, Maryland. Each year more than 1.3 million women worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer and almost a third of this number die because of the disease. To date, the only well-established risk factor is inheritance of a mutant or defective copy of one of the breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 or BRCA2. To prevent cancer occurrence, sequencing-based tests can identify individuals with defects in these genes; this is an effective method but the functional significance of most changes is difficult to predict. Consequently, almost 2,000 variants of unknown clinical significance have been identified, posing a serious dilemma for physicians. Dr. Sharan has developed a simple, tractable, and reliable functional assay to understand the significance of such changes. The technology he has developed will be of global benefit to individuals having defects in these genes, as well as physicians and genetic counselors. Furthermore this approach can be used to study other genes. In the era of molecular diagnostics, Dr. Sharan’s functional assay for studying BRCA1 and BRCA2 sequence variants serves as a paradigm for elucidating variants identified in other disease genes as well.

DR. EITE TIESINGA
National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce
For his extraordinary achievements as a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dr. Tiesinga has established one of the premier, world-class research programs on the theory of collisions of cold atoms. His prolific theoretical work is fundamental to much of the current, cutting-edge experimental work now using ultra-cold atoms to study quantum gases and establish the new field of quantum computing. Dr. Tiesinga’s work on controlling and understanding the interactions of atoms and using the so-called Feshbach resonances to tune or control those interactions has become crucial for quantum computing, for creating dipolar molecules with unusual electromagnetic quantum properties, and for understanding Bose-Einstein condensation and super-fluidity associated with neutral atoms trapped in laser-generated optical lattices. Such tunable resonances have become an indispensable tool in precise and quantitative experimental control of ultra-cold quantum gases. Dr. Tiesinga is routinely sought out by collaborators at NIST, in the USA and internationally to help analyze their measurements and discoveries. His theoretical models and analysis techniques have led to unprecedented precision in understanding and interpreting data on collisions of ultra-cold atoms and in very weakly bound molecular states. His work on modeling the behavior of ultra-cold atoms has helped extend NIST expertise in precise measurement into research areas where new quantum properties are most likely to be discovered.

2008 Winners

JOHN A. BIELEC
U.S. Government Accountability Office
For his exceptional legal achievement as a litigation attorney at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Bielec has successfully argued numerous cases, established significant legal precedents and saved GAO millions of tax dollars. In particular, as a result of his legal representation, major initiatives, including the restructuring of GAO's pay banding system and the closing of certain field offices, have withstood legal challenges. Mr. Bielec has also contributed significantly to the success of GAO's mission by working with representatives of multiple federal agencies to ensure appropriate safeguarding of information provided to GAO by other agencies, continued transparency through public access to GAO's work, and increased cooperation of federal agencies with GAO. His legal accomplishments and efforts have enabled GAO to meet its obligations to the Congress and the American people. Mr. Bielec has always devoted a significant share of his spare time to community youth activities and has served as chairman of his church's parish council.

MICHELLE S. BURGESS
U.S. Navy, Navy Undersea Warfare Center
In recognition of her outstanding sustained efforts and exceptional leadership abilities in administration, science and technical management while on temporary assignment from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I. as a science advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group (SSG), Newport, R.I. Dr. Burgess's enthusiasm, energy and poise combined with her commitment and dedication to her organization, have earned her the respect and recognition of her colleagues. Throughout her career she has excelled as a mechanical engineer, technical program manager and principal investigator; this experience has given her keen insight and understanding of the level of effort required for those she supervises to complete their tasks as well as implementing improvements to enhance their overall performance. Dr. Burgess has demonstrated exemplary ability to work with academia, industry and government entities. Away from the office, she adapts her many talents to an extraordinarily wide range of community activities to which she devotes much of her personal time and effort, especially the Special Olympics; of particular note is her donation of a kidney to a woman in her community.

DANIEL H. FRUCHTER
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
For his remarkable achievements as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Rockville Md. while serving on the Government's litigation team in a high profile False Claims Act case in Federal court. His achievements exemplify the highest level of commitment and outstanding performance, such as are rarely found in attorneys with only four years of Federal service. Mr. Fruchter's efforts in this case contributed significantly to a favorable outcome for the Government - a jury verdict resulting in an award of almost $6 million to the United States. He displayed a keen understanding of complex legal issues, authored a number of highly effective pleadings and proved adept at trial practice and procedure. Widespread media coverage of the trail and the favorable verdict signaled the importance of contractor compliance with requirements designed to ensure the objectivity and integrity of work performed by Government contractors. Mr. Fruchter's commitment to the community is reflect in his substantial volunteer work, which has included disaster relief efforts and the education of inner city children.

Dr. CHRIS HOSTETLER
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center
In recognition of his exceptional contributions as a senior research scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton Va. to the field of lidar remote sensing of clouds and aerosols. Dr. Hostetler has pushed the boundaries of science and technology to enable future experimental research in the atmospheric sciences. He is a recognized expert in the development and application of advanced space borne, airborne, and ground-based lidar to address scientific questions about climate change that are of high priority to NASA, the atmospheric science community, and the general public. Dr. Hostetler's efforts to demonstrate that a remote sensing laser system could reliably operate for several years were instrumental in making the first operational space-based lidar for atmospheric research a reality. Following the successful launch of the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission, he led the development of a new next-generation high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) instrument that represents a fundamental advance in instrumentation for studying the vertical structure of the Earth's atmosphere and recently led HSRL airborne experiments to successfully validate CALIPSO data. Dr. Hostetler is active in several roles in the scientific community, such as a spokesman in the media to better educate the public the efforts of NASA and other agencies to address global warming and climate change and a mentor to Post Doctoral NASA researchers, and in the community at large where he supports activities related to breast cancer research and the Special Olympics.

Dr. TARA H. McHUGH
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
For her numerous high impact research contributions to the development of innovative and sustainable food processing solutions to increase healthfulness and safety of specialty crops and for her exceptional scientific leadership. Dr. McHugh is a highly effective Research Leader for the Processed Foods Research Unit, Western Regional Region Center of the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Albany, Calif. Her cutting-edge food processing research has led to the commercialization of numerous novel, healthy and value-added foods. These include 100% fruit bars, flavorful and attractive fruit- and vegetable-based edible wraps and vitamin D-enhanced mushrooms. These inventions not only add value to specialty crops and improve the American farmers' ability to compete in international markets, but they also benefit both the nation's health by increasing availability of healthy food and rural communities by creating new businesses and job growth. Using the technologies and expertise developed in her laboratories, Dr. McHugh has been extremely effective in partnering with small start-up businesses that have subsequently built manufacturing facilities in rural communities, creating new job opportunities in areas of high unemployment.

Dr. SAE WOO NAM
National Institute of Standards and Technology
For his pioneering contributions and leadership in the field of single photonics as a research physicist and project leader of Quantum Information in the Optoelectronics Division of the National Institute of Standards & Technology in Boulder Colo. Dr. Nam is known worldwide for the invention and application of ground-breaking single photon detection systems, which are furthering some of the world's most challenging endeavors, including quantum cryptography, quantum computing, the examination of fundamental assumptions of quantum mechanics and the ultimate traceability of optical power. He has created best-in-class detector systems using two distinct technical approaches - superconducting tungsten transition edge sensor and superconducting niobium nitride single photon detectors. Dr. Nam's accomplishments include single photon detectors with world-record efficiency in the commercially important telecommunication band; nationally and internationally collaborative demonstrations of practical quantum key distribution with record data rate and distance for practical, ultra-secure communication networks; and the investigation of quantum states of light for improved metrology. In addition to this work, he is active in the scientific field, providing important input to the direction of his field; mentors graduate students and post-doctoral researchers; and is very active in the NIST community through a variety of internal organizations and activities.

Dr. JAQUES REIFMAN
U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command
For his exceptional meritorious achievements while serving as director of two cutting-edge research organizations: the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Bioinformatics Cell, and the Department of Defense Biotechnology High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute for Force Health Protection. Starting in 2001, Dr. Reifman single-handedly created, staffed, equipped and led these organizations, which exploit computational biology to expedite development of biomedical counter measures for the conflicts of the 21st century. He has led his dedicated team of diverse scientists to the forefront of computational biology research to help improve soldiers' health by reducing the occurrence of non-battle injuries and the morbidity and mortality of battlefield casualties, and by enabling faster development of diagnostic devices, drugs and vaccines. During seven years of exceptional leadership, extraordinary performance and consistent diligence, Dr. Reifman has transformed the computational biology research capabilities of the Army and of the Department of Defense from non-existent to world-class caliber. In the community at large, he lends his talents in a number of areas: as an accredited mentor with the National Research Council of the National Academies; as a regular member of advisory and review panels for the Army, Department of Defense and other institutions; as investment committee chairman for his synagogue; and as a Science Fair judge.

RON A. SZYMANSKI
U.S. Army CERDEC Command and Control Directorate
In recognition of his distinguished performance in the role of technical leader as Lead Computer Scientist with the U.S. Army CERDEC Command & Control (C2) Directorate in Ft. Monmouth N.J. Mr. Szymanski's technical skills and leadership abilities are at the heart of the Battle Command Division's success in delivering projects such as the Joint Web Common Operating Picture's (COP) Plan Subscription Tool; The Running Estimate Services; and the innovative Command and Control Multi-touch Environment Technology (COMET), which he successfully designed and developed in spite of multiple obstacles. His demonstrated skill at grasping the essential requirements embodied in Warfighter needs and his ability to gather and manage resources to meet those requirements by application of innovative technologies in elegant ways is a key asset to the C2 Directorate's future success. He volunteers his personal time and significant technical skills in support of the eCYBERMISSION Program, a free, annual web-based science, math and technology competition for students in grades 6 through 9, serving repeatedly as a judge.

Dr. STEPHAN J. STRANICK
National Institute of Standards and Technology
For his innovations in chemical imaging microscopy techniques below the diffraction limit of light while working as a research scientist with the National Institute of Standards & Technology in Gaithersburg Md. Dr. Stranick designed and demonstrated novel near-field optical microscopy platforms that resulted in dramatic spatial resolution improvements in the visible, infrared and microwave wavelength regimes. His key design innovations led to marked increases in sensitivity and throughput, allowing for far greater applicability of spectroscopic techniques such as Raman to industrially relevant chemical systems. In addition, Dr. Stranick's work has realized complimentary "far-field" super-resolution chemical microscopies based on optical wavefront programming that have provided significant improvements in spatial resolution, allowing for high fidelity chemical imaging of features less than a hundred nanometers. The instrumentation and methods he has developed have been applied to a variety of scientific systems, including nanoscale stress/strain in materials and the distribution of chemical species in biological systems. Dr. Stranick is very involved in teaching and mentoring students from grade school through post graduates and his excitement for science has encouraged many students to pursue scientific careers. He and his family have worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Health in the production of a DVD to raise national awareness of the continuing need to vaccinate children of all ages for Hepatitis A.

2007 Winners

JOHN BUTLER, Ph.D.
National Institute of Standards & Technology
For his contributions as a research chemist to the field of DNA measurement science, a core activity at the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST).  Dr. Butler is one of the world’s leading authorities in DNA-based Human Identification measurement science and technology and is the author of the definitive text used in this field throughout the world.  Among his many significant contributions in this area, the development of “short tandem repeat (STR) markers” has revolutionized the field of DNA forensic science.  The STR markers enable analysis of very small samples of degraded DNA and can be used for human identification, particularly for investigations of mass disasters (both natural and intentional) and missing persons.  This technology was used in the World Trade Center victim identification efforts following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, and more recently has been used to aid in the identification of countless victims, including those of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war.

MARTIN CARLISLE, Ph.D.
United States Air Force Academy
In recognition of his outstanding and sustained achievement as a Professor of Computer Science at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.  Dr. Carlisle expertly crafted the Ada Graphical Integrated Development Environment (AdaGIDE) used for the development of computer software in the Ada programming language for U.S. Air Force programs, including the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft and since incorporated into technical curricula in more than 100 colleges and universities in 9 countries.  In addition, Dr. Carlisle integrated Ada with the Microsoft Net Framework to create the A# programming language which supports critical defense-related activities, including the B-1 bomber program at Warner Robbins Air Force Base.  Finally, to foster the teaching of computer programming and algorithmic thinking skills, Professor Carlisle created the RAPTOR visual programming language and environment that is utilized by all three major U.S. service academies as well as many other universities and colleges in the USA and 5 other countries.

CHRISTA PETERS-LIDARD, Ph.D.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center
In recognition of her innovative and important contributions and leadership as a hydrologist, physical scientist, and Branch Head in the Earth Sciences Division of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.  Dr. Peters-Lidard is internationally known for her contributions to high-resolution land surface modelling and satellite data assimilation, and particularly for the application of high-performance computing and communications technologies to this problem.  By creatively synthesizing data and models, she has improved the understanding of the water and energy exchanges that impact weather and climate.  Her highly successful and award-winning Land Information System project is revolutionizing the Nation’s hydrometeorological forecasting capabilities by effectively transitioning the latest NASA science and technology to other agencies with which she works closely, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Air Force Weather Agency.  She is an active participant in the scientific community as a journal editor and conference chair.

ANDRE NUSSENZWEIG, Ph.D.
Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
For the major contributions he has made throughout his career to our understanding of how the integrity of genome is maintained.  Dr. Nussenzweig, a senior investigator at NCI, has made a series of incisive discoveries in the fields of DNA repair and oncogenesis.  This has included establishing that the major non-homologous end joining pathway acts as a genomic “caretaker” that protects the cancer, determining the etiology of chromosomal translocations associated with lymphomas; discovery that a core histone, the basic unit utilized by cells to compact their genomes, can act as a tumor suppressor; and finding two complementary genome maintenance functions in DNA repair and apoptosis that prevent genetic damage from being passed from one generation to the next.  Dr. Nussenzweig’s work on the fundamental aspects of DNA damage detection and repair has important implications for our understanding of the causes of cancer and other age-related pathologies.

ERIC SHIRLEY, Ph.D.
National Institute of Standards & Technology
For fundamental theoretical advances in solid-state physics and optics.  Dr. Shirley has advanced the first-principles calculation of the electronic structure of crystalline insulators and semiconductors to allow the highly accurate prediction of their optical properties from the infra-red to the x-ray spectral region.  He has developed efficient approaches to include electron-hole effects and phonon-phonon interactions in the solution of the equations describing excited states in solids, necessary for accurate optical constant prediction in these many-electron systems.  In addition Dr. Shirley has advanced the theory of optical diffraction to allow the rapid and systematic calculation of diffraction effects in complex optical systems.  His advances have made accurate optical diffraction corrections accessible to experimental scientists developing infrared radiation standards.

TANER YILDIRIM, Ph.D.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
For his outstanding achievement as a research physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  Dr. Yildirim has developed a pioneering approach of combining first-principles, theoretical calculations with neutron scattering measurements to understand, identify and exploit the key properties in new and important materials.  His innovative, quantum-mechanical methodology is fundamentally altering the way that scientists attack a broad range of research problems and has provided a new paradigm for addressing critical issues in materials science.  Dr. Yildirim’s approach has already led to an understanding of the superconductivity of MgB2, a material that exhibits the highest transition temperature of any conventional superconductor.  More recently he has invented completely new ways to enhance the capacity to store hydrogen in a variety of sold-state materials including alanates, carbon nanotubes, metal-organic frameworks, and ethylene molecules.  His latest results offer the promise of surmounting what is widely considered to be the most serious obstacle in the road to the hydrogen economy.

Major TIMOTHY BODE
United States Air Force, Space Based Infrared Systems Wing
For extraordinary contributions to the federal service as Chief of Operations for the Space Based Infrared Systems Combined Task Force in Boulder, Colorado.  Major Bode exercised exceptional leadership in a wide range program acquisition, technical test, and operations functions to initiate successful operations of a unique new Air Force satellite payload.  The results provided dramatic, tangible contributions to our nation’s ability to warn and defend against threat of hostile missile attack and weapons of mass destruction.  Major Bode also displayed outstanding initiative by working with representatives of multiple federal agencies to extend the promise of this modern satellite payload to benefit civil applications across the globe.

JUDITH HAGLEY
Tax Division, Department of Justice
For her exceptional achievement as an Appellate Section Attorney with the Tax Division, Department of Justice in Washington, DC.  During her six year career with the Tax Division, Ms. Hagley has successfully argued numerous cases, established significant legal precedents and saved the Government millions of tax dollars.  Two extremely important cases among many stand out.  In successfully arguing a high-profile case, Coltec Industries, Inc. v. U.S., she persuaded the Federal Circuit to reverse a lower court decision in a closely watched "contingent liability" tax shelter case in which the taxpayer claimed a loss deduction of $378 million.  This landmark decision was consummated when the Supreme Court denied Coltec's petition for a writ of certiorari.  This case was an especially important victory for the Government because it reaffirmed the applicability of the economic-substance doctrine in abusive tax shelter cases.  Ms. Hagley also successfully briefed and argued another closely watched case, BB&T Corp. v. United States.  There, the Fourth Circuit agreed with the Government that a taxpayer was not entitled to the tax benefits from a lease/leaseback tax shelter called the LILO, holding that the Government was not bound by the labels that taxpayers placed on a transaction but could instead look to the transaction's underlying substance to determine whether the claimed tax benefits were legitimate.  This case was particularly important because many corporate taxpayers had purchased this tax shelter, claiming billions of dollars in tax benefits.  In short, Ms. Hagley is single-handedly responsible for helping turn the tide against the proliferation of abusive individual and corporate tax shelter schemes, and ensuring that every taxpayer pays his, her or its fair share of the federal tax burden.

ALISA KLEIN
Civil Division, Department of Justice
For her remarkable performance as an Appellate Staff Attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.  Ms. Klein achieved extraordinary victories in some of the Department’s most important and sensitive appellate cases.  For example, in Public Citizen v. U.S. District Court she successfully defended the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, legislation designed to reduce direct federal spending by $39 billion over five years.  In addition, vital public and private interest rest on this legislation, whose titles amended a wide variety of statutes including the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, the Communications Act of 1934, and the Social Security Act.  Other significant statutes successfully defended by Ms. Klein include the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Controlled Substances Act, and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.  She has displayed an unparalleled ability to evaluate a complex legal problem, distill its essence, and present the Government’s position in so compelling a manner that its merit cannot be denied.

JANINE VELASCO
Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior
For her outstanding leadership as the Assistant Director, Human Capital Management in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC.  Ms. Velasco has led BLM’s efforts in strategic planning and budgeting, program evaluations, organizational management, and finance.  In 2006, she was selected to take on the challenges of workforce management.  Of a total BLM workforce 10,000, some 35% will be eligible for retirement within a few years.  BLM recognized the urgent need for an executive who understood the natural resource challenges and could transform the workforce.  Meeting the competing demands of the 21st century – energy development, recreation and climate change – Ms. Velasco understood that the Bureau needed to recruit and retain exceptional candidates who reflect the public they serve.  Her efforts have improved the effectiveness of leadership recruitment and development, decreased administrative burdens and built BLM’s capacity to deliver upon its mission.

Award Winners 1948-2006