Lt. Cmdr. Austin West Receives Prestigious National Award by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class James Norket,
Naval Postgraduate School
July 14, 2021
“Lasers are the future of U.S. Navy shipboard defense.”
A
straightforward statement, but it was all the motivation U.S. Navy
Lt. Cmdr. Austin West needed to tackle a highly-challenging research
topic for his master’s degree on Meteorology and Oceanography from
the Naval Postgraduate School.
A member of the 2021 Spring
Quarter graduating class, West’s thesis examined the atmospheric
effects of the maritime environment on the Navy’s High Energy Laser
Weapons System (HELWS), and how adaptive optics could compensate for
those effects making the futuristic weapons system more effective.
As a METOC officer (Meteorology and Oceanography) West
combined his operational specialty with NPS’ cutting-edge curricula
to deliver impactful research with immediate application to one of
the Navy’s high-priority defensive capabilities under development
for the Fleet.
And he was recognized, significantly, for his
efforts … Announced just before graduation, the Navy League of the
United States awarded West with the prestigious Parsons Award for
Scientific and Technical Progress.
“The Navy League of the
United States is honored to sponsor the 2020 Rear Admiral William S.
Parsons Award for Scientific and Technical Progress,” said Navy
League CEO Mike Stevens, who previously served as 13th Master Chief
Petty Officer of the Navy. “We are proud of Lt. Cmdr. West for the
receipt of this award. We are also grateful for his contributions to
the scientific community. He is an outstanding example and what
makes NPS and U.S. Naval forces second to none.”
The Navy
League first awarded this honor in 1957, and has been on the quest
to honor the Navy’s top scientists ever since. The award is given
every year to a U.S. Navy or Marine Corps officer, enlisted or
civilian who has made an outstanding contribution in any field of
science that has furthered the development and progress of the Navy
or Marine Corps.
“My research focused on modeling how
different types of atmospheric effects impact the laser propagation,
such as environmental absorption, scattering, and turbulence,”
described West. “The Fleet is starting to see these weapons systems
arrive aboard ships, and they need to understand when and how they
can operate, and how atmospheric conditions will impact their system
performance. So I looked at how lasers perform under these effects,
and researched how much adaptive optics can correct for them.”
The tactical advantage of adaptive optics is significant, West
explained, capable of accounting for and correcting the impact of a
constantly-changing atmospheric environment near the surface.
“[The research] was such a cognitively tactile experience,” said
West on working with high energy lasers, and working with his
faculty advisor, Dr. Qing Wang. “I thank Dr. Wang, and the entire
NPS faculty and staff who helped me develop the conceptual model
that I applied to this research. You were the foundation that was
the nexus necessary to understand the complexities of such a
multi-disciplinary field such as high energy lasers through the
atmosphere.”
West also thanked the METOC community for
supporting higher education so that officers like him can perform
critical research, and develop critical skills, that provide a
high-return on the educational investment.
“Having just
graduated, I am prepared to return and relieve the watch,” said
West. “Hopefully I’m armed with more than just memorized equations
and formulas, but creative and structured critical thinking skills
that will allow me to not just tackle the problems that are emerging
on the horizon, but those unforeseen ones that are coming tomorrow.”
West joins a highly-accomplished community of Parsons Award
winners, many of whom are also NPS graduates. Parsons himself
graduated the university with a degree in ordnance engineering, and
was instrumental in developing the variable time fuse which is still
in use today, as well as making notable contributions to the
Manhattan Project in World War II.
Retired Adm. John H.
Sides, considered to be the father of the Navy’s guided missile
program, and Rear Adm. Wayne E. Meyer, coined the Father of the
AEGIS program, are also NPS graduates who have received the award.
University leaders noted these accomplishments are an indicator
of how NPS develops the Navy’s future technology, and the Navy’s
future thought leadership.
“[West’s] research reflects one of
the unique aspects of NPS,” said NPS Dean of Students U.S. Navy
Capt. Markus Gudmundsson. “Students bring their own operational
experience to classrooms and laboratories to collaborate with
defense-focused faculty to solve key, operational problems with
technical solutions. This produces two critical products … New
capabilities for the fleet, certainly, but even more importantly,
naval leaders who are exceptionally well qualified to acquire and
deploy advanced naval warfare capabilities.”
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