Johns Hopkins APL Achievement Awards Spotlight Major Inventions and Technical Breakthroughs

On April 30, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, honored nearly 180 staff members for their exceptional contributions in 2023 during its annual Achievement Awards ceremony.

During the virtual event, staff members received awards for outstanding work in areas such as publications, independent research and development (IRAD) projects, internally funded innovation initiatives, inventions and mission accomplishments. All told, 176 staff members were recognized for 28 winning entries, from 629 staff members named in 121 nominated entries in 25 categories.

Publication Awards

Author’s First Paper in a Peer-Reviewed Journal or Proceedings
Gabriella Hunt, for “High Emissive Contrast of Adaptive, Thin-Film, Tungsten-Doped VO2 Composites.”

Outstanding Paper in the Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest (The Walter G. Berl Award)
Andrew Cheng, Ralph McNutt and Harold Weaver, for “Science Highlights From NASA’s New Horizons Mission.”

Outstanding Research Paper in an Externally Refereed Publication
Elena Adams, Olivier Barnouin, Nancy Chabot, Michelle Chen, Andrew Cheng, Terik Daly, Carolyn Ernst, Zachary Fletcher, Mark Jensenius and Andrew Rivkin, for “Successful Kinetic Impact Into an Asteroid for Planetary Defence,” published in Nature.

Outstanding Development Paper in an Externally Refereed Publication
Robert Armiger, Matthew Fifer, Priya Gajendiran, Meiyong Pelos, Courtney Moran, Harrison Nguyen, Luke Osborn, Jonathan Pierce, Richard Ung, Rama Venkatasubramanian and Jared Wormley, for “Evoking Natural Thermal Perceptions Using a Thin-Film Thermoelectric Device With High Cooling Power Density and Speed,” published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Outstanding Professional Book
Edward Birrane, Sarah Heiner and Kenneth McKeever, for “Securing Delay-Tolerant Networks With BPSec,” published by John Wiley & Sons.

Outstanding Special Publication
Robert Allen, Robert Decker, Russell Howard, Vamsee Jagarlamudi, James Kinnison, Nour Rawafi, Guillermo Stenborg and Angelos Vourlidas, for “Parker Solar Probe: Four Years of Discoveries at Solar Cycle Minimum,” published in Space Science Reviews.

Outstanding Conference Publication
Michelle Chen, Musad Haque, Stephen Jenkins, Mark Jensenius, Daniel O’Shaughnessy, Carolyn Sawyer and Emil Superfin, for “SMART Nav Guidance: Ensuring Asteroid Impact for the DART Mission,” published in the proceedings of the 45th Annual American Astronautical Society Guidance and Control Conference.

Lifetime Achievement Publication Award
Barry Mauk, for his extensive and insightful writing on space missions spearheaded by APL, illuminating the complexities and triumphs of space exploration.

Donald Mitchell, for advancing our understanding of the solar system through his prolific contributions and significant research in planetary science and astrophysics.

The Alvin R. Eaton Award

Russell Popkin, who has delivered highly classified technical analysis and delivered revolutionary system capabilities for service and joint sponsors.

R. W. Hart Prizes for Excellence in Independent Research and Development

Best IRAD Research Project 
Brian Bittner, Scott Gibson, Michael Kepler, Zachary Kurtz, Varun Madabushi, Christopher Moran, Jason Reid, Lee Schloesser and Nick Zielinski, for “Advanced Perception and Control for Autonomous UUV Manipulation.”

Best IRAD Development Project 
Curt Albert, Scott Gibson, John Lindemon, Toni Salter, Andrew Skow, Paul Stankiewicz and Vivek Viswanathan, for “USV Perception and Autonomy Development and Demonstration.”

Invention Awards

Government Purpose Invention
Timothy Allensworth, Jonathan Bierce, Raymond Lennon, Matthew Shanaman, Clara Smart, Christopher Stiles and Steven Storck, for “Novel Additive Structures for Pressure Vessels.”

Invention of the Year
Jarod Gagnon, Lisa Pogue and Scott Shuler for “Method for Recycling Rare Earths From End-of-Life Electronics.”

Mission Accomplishment Awards

Outstanding Mission Accomplishment for a Current Challenge
Core team members Timothy Allensworth, TJ Coleman, Matthew DeHart, Douglas Haefeli, Justin Jones, Dillon Kasmer, Andrew Miller, David Orr, Thomas Sherman and Tony Zampardo, for “Anguilla.”

Outstanding Mission Accomplishment for an Emerging Challenge
Core team members Teck Choo, Chuong Dang, Mo DeVillier, Barry Fridling, Mick Marana, Trystan May, Dante Sanaei, Jack Santori, Joshua Sloane and Benjamin Waida, for “Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare Capabilities for Zumwalt.”

Enterprise Accomplishment Award
David Casselbury, David Harper, Kristine Harshaw, Scott Kim, Jillian Kingwood, Julia Mooney, Sylvie Porter, Gregory Schilsson and Briana Vecchio-Pagan, for “Slack Enterprise Launch and Adoption.”

Project Catalyst Awards

Ignition Grant Prize for Innovation
Xiomara Calderón-Colón, Spencer Langevin and Michael D. Sherburne, for “Strain Sensing Nanomaterial-Based Paint (SSNaP) for Naval Applications.”

Combustion Grant Prize for Innovation
Denise Hoover, Nicholas Pavlopoulos and Nathan Rafisiman, for “N2A: Nitrogen-to-Ammonia for Sustainable Energy.”

Propulsion Grant Prize for Innovation (three awards)
Ben Baker, Bryan Bates, Daniel Binion, Richard Maltagliati and Andrew Raab, for “Poseidon’s Net Raid Neutralizer.”

Ian Bird, Molly Gallagher, Sarah Grady, Mika Helfers and Jessica Resnick, for “Immunity Twin: Developing Parallel Biological and Computational Immunological Model Systems.”

Matthew Bailey, Walter Kelso, Ryan Seery, Daniel Shaefer and Dajie Zhang, for “Omega Prime – Reconfigurable Equipment Section.”

Director’s Award for Special Achievements

Garret Bonnema, Michael S. Brown, Benjamin Henty, Sara Margala, Katherine Newell, Xochitl Oliveros, Vincent Pagán, Daniel Tebben, Chad Weiler and Christine Zgrabik, for “TAMERLANE.”

The Boldies

Bumblebee Award, for a bold funded project
Brad Bazow, Mary Daffron, Daniel Eby, Samuel Gonzalez, Andrew Lennon, Kyle Lowery, Salahudin Nimer, Vincent Pagán, Michael Pekala and Steven Storck, for “Debunking Current Military Specifications for Additive Manufactured (AM) Part Qualification.”

Noble Prize, for lessons learned
Hannah Collins, Zachary Kiick, Steven Knowlden, Brian Koronkiewicz, Allison Moyer and Scott Shuler, for “OLD BAE: Operable Ligands for Decontaminating Befouled Aquatic Environments.”

Light the FUSE Award

David Díaz Márquez, Teresa Johnson, Hannah Kowpak, Ronald Ostrenga, Robin Qualls, Krista Rand and Katie Zaback, for “APL Accessibility Map Project.”

Analytical Achievement Awards

Dylan Carter, Bill Lee, Chris Najmi, Tahzib Safwat, John Schmidt and Naruhisa Takashima, for applying analysis to inform the establishment of a partnership between the U.S. and Japan.

Stephanie Allen, Xander Dawson, Jim Farrell III, Eric Gerdes, Jason Miller, Joshua Mueller, Jared Ott, Kevin Peters and Andrew Ridenour, for leading an effort to develop system-of-system requirements for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force.

Courageous Achievement Awards

Tyler Boehmer, David Frankford, Yuriy Noyvert, Katrina Roarty, Antonio Trujillo Parra and Kyle Weber, for “Identification and Mitigation of Foreign-Sourced Printed Circuit Boards.”

Sara McGarity, for “Courage to Report Discrepancies.”