Johns Hopkins APL’s Kennedy Honored for Electronic Warfare Work

Paul Kennedy, an electronic warfare engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, was recently honored by the Association of Old Crows. Kennedy, who leads APL’s electronic warfare signal processing team, was awarded the Association of Old Crows’ Future 5 award for his professional contributions in developing electronic warfare capabilities for APL’s Department of Defense sponsors.

An international organization, the Association of Old Crows unites members, organizations and like-minded individuals interested in electromagnetic warfare and spectrum operations. Association members connect nationally and internationally across government, defense, industry and academia to promote the exchange of ideas and information and to recognize advanced contributions in these fields.

The Association of Old Crows’ Future 5 award recognizes young professionals who “actively innovate and strive for excellence as they build their careers in the electromagnetic spectrum/electronic warfare/information operations industry.”

Kennedy is credited for leading an Independent Research and Development program called Prototype Collaborative Electronic Warfare Systems as principal investigator. Working with his team, Kennedy took a novel idea for collaborative electronic warfare through concept development, modeling and simulation, prototype development and demonstration.

A point of pride for Kennedy was sharing the work with peers at the Association of Old Crows’ Collaborative Electronic Warfare Symposium 2024. “Much of our work in this industry has very limited distribution, so I was excited to share my ideas with new people. It’s a nice recognition of some of the effort and work we’ve been doing at APL,” he said.

Kennedy has also served for the past two years as the scholarship and awards chair for the Association of Old Crows’ Chesapeake Bay Roost, the association’s local chapter that includes many APL staff members. “Paul’s contributions have been fundamental to the successful revitalization of our chapter. Paul has taken an active role in the Roost, leading the establishment of chapter processes for awards and scholarships,” said Jon Ward, president of the Chesapeake Bay Roost and a chief scientist for electronic warfare at APL.

Ward added that in 2024, Kennedy led the chapter to donate three scholarships to college-bound high school seniors. Additionally, through community outreach in his scholarships role, Kennedy built relationships with local high schools to make potential science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students aware of the association, its mission, the Chesapeake Bay Roost and scholarship opportunities, Ward said.