AFRL execs garner four Presidential Rank Awards

  • Published
  • By Derek Kaufman
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Four senior Air Force Research Laboratory personnel have been honored with 2008 Presidential Rank Awards. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced the awards Oct. 1, which honor the top executives in federal government for outstanding program results and executive leadership. 

Dr. Don Paul, chief scientist for AFRL's Air Vehicles Directorate here, was honored in the distinguished senior professional category. Mr. Joe Sciabica, executive director of the Air Force Research Laboratory, was named a meritorious senior executive. Dr. Alok Das, AFRL's senior scientist for design innovation, and Dr. Barry Farmer, chief scientist for AFRL's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, were each honored as meritorious senior professionals. 

The honorees were nominated by their agency leadership, evaluated by boards comprised of private citizens and approved by President Bush. As a Distinguished Rank recipient, Dr. Paul will receive a lump-sum payment award equivalent to 35 percent of his rate of annual basic pay. Only one percent of the career Senior Executive Service or Senior Professional members may receive this award, officials said. 

The Meritorious Rank award recipients each will receive 20 percent of their rate of annual basic pay. Only five percent of senior career employees may receive this award. All recipients also receive a framed certificate signed by the President. 

"Each year, the President celebrates the contributions of strong leaders, professionals and scientists for their relentless commitment to excellence in public service," said Maj Gen Curt Bedke, AFRL commander. "I'm pleased to congratulate four of our best and brightest for their stellar performance and significant contributions to our Air Force and the scientific community." 

Dr. Paul is the Air Force's principle scientific advisor in the conduct of research and development on all aspects of flight vehicle technology, including aeromechanics, structures, controls, and integration. Maj. Gen. Bedke said Paul's contributions as lead chief scientist of the AFRL Focused Long-Term Challenge program enabled a "sea-state change in how the Air Force accomplishes science and technology investment."

"It is no stretch to characterize the FLTCs as the single most significant change in AFRL since the stand-up of the single laboratory in 1997," Bedke added. Paul's nomination said he ensured approximately $2 billion in Air Force science and technology investment was directed at "true game-changing technologies for the 21st Century."

Joe Sciabica "led an extraordinary series of technologic advances ranging from space flight experiments to cutting-edge air layer sensor system developments," Bedke said. His latest, Project Angel Fire, a prototype near real-time surveillance and reconnaissance system with stare capability, deployed to Iraq this year in support of the Marine Corps.

In his nomination, Sciabica was also praised for his investment in helping to build a healthy academic pipeline of research expertise through investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education partnerships with local school systems and universities.

Dr. Das led the creation of an innovative rapid reaction team concept. This enabled researchers to focus on solving urgent warfighter technical problems like helicopter brownout and "surgically engaging" fleeting targets while also supporting long-term research in projects like microsatellites, Bedke said. The teams helped Special Operations Forces by rapidly developing a synthetic vision system to see through dust helicopters kick up while landing in desert environments, and a prototype backpack-sized aerial vehicle which could locate, track and engage high-value targets.

As chief scientist of AFRL's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate , Dr. Farmer, "championed new investments in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and computational materials research," Bedke said. He established a world-leading research program in computational modeling of polymer nanomaterials as well as an aggressive schedule for peer-reviews for the directorate's in-house research projects. His materials research initiatives are absolutely critical to maintaining USAF technological superiority, Bedke added.

Dr. Farmer's model for enhancing computational materials research within his directorate was adopted AFRL wide. The resulting AFRL Strategic Technology Thrusts "bring together experts in various directorates to focus on multidisciplinary facets of the laboratories technology base, and provides a mechanism to devote resources needed to develop the programs to address them," Bedke said.

For a complete government-wide list of winners, refer to the website at http://www.opm.gov/ses/performance/presrankawards.asp.