IDA Research Staff participate actively in various professional activities – both within their disciplines and ancillary to them – including publishing in the open literature. Below are some recent citations of IDA Researchers and their work.
The Precision Strike Association paid tribute to former CARD researcher Ginny Sniegon with its annual William J. Perry Award(Open external link). The award, named in honor of former Secretary of Defense Perry, recognizes exceptional contributions to precision strike systems in the private or public sector; previous recipients include former Vice-President Dan Quayle, Dr. Paul Kaminski, and ADM Scott Swift, former Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet. Mrs. Sniegon was awarded the NDIA Gold Medal as well.
On March 26, President Trump signed out an Executive Order (EO) on Electromagnetic Pulses(Open external link) (EMPs), the culmination of a STPI effort. STPI has been an intellectual driver on this topic, and has shepherded the document though the signing process. The Executive order establishes the first ever comprehensive Executive branch policy to improve resilience to EMPs(Open external link).
On March 26, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy released the 2019 National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan(Open external link). The STPI team supported the development of this strategy and action plan and its interagency clearance, and plan to support the implementation. This strategy and action plan(Open external link) builds on the previous (2015) strategy and action plan and updates national policy as the Nation reinvigorates its human space exploration program, reinforces the importance of space-based capabilities for critical national functions and security, and enhances its overall resilience.
Center for Computing Sciences researcher Michelle Snider received the 2019 Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Service Award(Open external link) during a ceremony at the Joint Mathematics Meetings(Open external link) in Baltimore in January. This award specifically recognizes Dr. Snider’s work on building a new AWM website(Open external link), thereby helping to create a positive community space to connect women across the mathematical sciences. Dr. Snider also serves on the AWM’s Policy and Advocacy Committee, and has led delegations of mathematicians to Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers on issues facing women in STEM.
SFRD researcher Peter Levine testified(Open external link) before Members of the House Armed Services Committee on March 12; the committee invited non-DoD experts to discuss efforts to recruit and retain the officers needed to provide the leadership and skills that today’s military needs. A full transcript(Open external link) and Mr. Levine’s opening statement(Open external link) are also available.
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Sandy Kutin, deputy director at IDA's Center for Communications Research in Princeton, took second place in the National Museum of Mathematics Masters Tournament on February 26. Bloomberg described the contest with dozens of competitors as “devilishly tough(Open external link).” Congratulations!
STPI Researcher Susannah Howieson has been named as one of nine incoming Congressional Nuclear Security Fellows(Open external link) for the 2019 calendar year. While on a leave of absence from IDA, she will be serving in the office of Representative Bill Foster (D-IL).
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The recent Government Accountability Office report, Weapon System Sustainment: DOD Needs to Better Capture and Report Software Sustainment Costs (GAO-19-173)(Open external link), cited IDA publication Department of Defense Access to Intellectual Property for Weapon Systems Sustainment(Open external link). The Congressionally-directed IDA research addressed issues regarding the acquisition of intellectual property rights (technical data and software) and recommended approaches to improving the Department of Defense’s management of the acquisition of intellectual property rights and data for sustainment of weapon systems.
ITSD researchers (pictured left to right) Brian Cohen, Michelle G. Albert, and Elizabeth McDaniel published their article “The Need for Higher Education in Cyber Supply Chain Security and Hardware Assurance(Open external link)” in International Journal of Systems and Software Security and Protection (IJSSSP), Volume 9 (2018), Issue 2.
Dave Hunter, CARD’s Deputy Director, is the new President-Elect for the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). This means that he will be the President in 2020. With 12,500 members, INFORMS is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to promoting best practices and advances in operations research, management science, and analytics to improve operational processes, decision-making, and outcomes. It offers scholarships and prizes and has recently launched Pro Bono Analytics, where analytics professionals who are willing to volunteer their skills are matched with nonprofit organizations that would benefit from analytical techniques.
SFRD’s John Warden and coauthor Ankit Panda describe the risk of an unconstrained development of North Korean nuclear capabilities, how arms control would serve U.S. and allied interests, and the parameters of a plausible agreement, including major obstacles that would need to be overcome in their article “Goals for Any Arms Control Proposal with North Korea(Open external link)” in the February 13 issue of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
ITSD’s Michael Fischerkeller and coauthor Richard Harknett flesh out the logic of agreed competition and how the concept applies to military operating domains other than cyberspace and more expansive strategic competition in their recently published article “What Is Agreed Competition in Cyberspace?(Open external link)” in the February 19 blog Lawfare. The article was prepared as IDA publication NSD-10415.
IDA hosted the first-ever DoD Cyberspace Symbology Workshop on February 21 and 22. In support of the Joint Staff and DISA Chairmen, IDA researchers (pictured left to right) Erick McCroskey (OED), Chuck Mock (OED), and Tom Strickland (ITSD) facilitated three different working groups, provided subject matter expertise, consolidated recommendations, and presented each day’s results to the plenary session.
STPI’s Alexis McKittrick was a guest speaker on the Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office’s quarterly webinar held February 19. She discussed the recently released, STPI-authored report, Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Roadmap(Open external link). Dr. McKittrick was joined on the webinar by DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Daniel Simmons, who provided an update on geothermal progress and priorities at DOE.
JAWD’s Alec Wahlman is co-chair for the MORS conference on Analysis of Urban Warfare, April 2-5 in Quantico. This is the first MORS meeting focused on urban warfare since 2001. Attendees can register for just the first day, or all four. For more information go directly to the MORS event site(Open external link).
SFRD researcher Deena Disraelly presented her session, Engineering Solutions to the Government's Toughest Challenges, at the Society of Women Engineers (SWE)’s Local Tampa conference on Saturday, February 16. She explained that there are more opportunities than ever for female engineers to interact with government and contribute to both problem solving and decision making that will affect society for years to come.
STPI’s Leslie Abrahams was the Host Committee Chair at the SWE Local Baltimore event on February 8 and 9(Open external link) at the Baltimore Convention Center. IDA Vice President for Management Linda Huntt gave remarks as host of the Power Hour(Open external link). STPI’s Alexis McKittrick and Leslie Abrahams and SFRD’s Deena Disraelly presented at sessions during the conference, and OED’s Laura Itle represented IDA at the SWE Career Fair.
SED’s Patrick Jaffke spoke about his winning research at the Seaborg Institute Seminar on February 7. The article, for which he received the Postdoctoral Publication Prize in Actinide Science – “Hauser-Feshbach fission fragment de excitation with calculated macroscopic-microscopic mass yields(Open external link)” – was published in Physical Review C in March 2018.
Pictured left to right, STPI’s Alexis McKittrick, Leslie Abrahams, Christopher Clavin, Robert Rozansky, and Daniel Bernstein developed the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Roadmap(Open external link) under tasking by Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office. It was officially released(Open external link) on February 8 at 10:00 a.m. The objective of this roadmap is to provide technical research recommendations to DOE GTO, FORGE’s Science and Technology Analysis Team (STAT), and the broader research community for the 5 years of FORGE’s operation as an enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) research site operated by the Utah FORGE team at the Milford, Utah, site.
CCRL Director Skip Garibaldi was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society(Open external link). The Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. CCRP Director David Saltman and emeritus Director David Goldschmidt, emeritus CCRL Directors Joe Buhler and Al Hales, and Board of Trustees member Jill Mesirov are also Fellows of the AMS.
ITSD’s Randy Simpson’s paper Mobile Ad-hoc for Enterprise Level Security(Open external link), prepared with co-author Kevin Foltz, earned the Best Paper Award of International Conference on Computer Science and Applications 2018(Open external link). For more information about publishing in peer-reviewed journals, contact your division director.
SFRD’s Michael Fitzsimmons, currently on an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignment with the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, has a new monograph(Open external link) published for that agency. Dr. Fitzsimmons discussed the possibilities and pitfalls of scenario planning and strategy in the Pentagon.
Mike McCord, an Adjunct Research Staff Member in CARD, appeared on the January 14 edition of Government Matters(Open external link). As a member of the National Defense Strategy Commission and former comptroller at the Defense Department, he argued that, while a transaction database could assist in future auditing at the Pentagon, it’s important that it provide information, and not just data.
