By Javier Chagoya

Operations research students, U.S. Navy Lts. Dustin Schultz and Steve Rockwell, center left to right, are this quarter's recipients of the Surface Navy Association Award for Academic Excellence in Surface Warfare, announced March 2. The award-winning duo is pictured with their faculty advisors and research supporters, Department of Operations Research Senior Lecturer Paul Sanchez, Professor of Practice Jeff Kline, and Professor Tom Lucas, from left.

Sanchez and Lucas nominated the two students, suggesting a unique joint award in recognition of their critical research on one of the Navy's emerging surface ship weapons systems, the high-energy laser (HEL). Rockwell's research focused on the integration of an HEL on a destroyer in relation to air defense, while Schultz ran a detailed simulation of a HEL-equipped warship under an attack.

"Their work is far more of a collaboration than I have ever seen in my 17 years at NPS," Lucas said. "The SNA Academic Excellence award is validation that the research our students are doing is of great value to the Navy – above and beyond our mission to educate officers."