By Javier Chagoya

NPS Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Professor and past Chair Dr. Knox Millsaps displays his Navy Superior Civilian Service Award in front of Herrmann Hall, Sept. 11. Millsaps bids farewell to NPS after 23 years on campus to serve in the Senior Executive Service.

"While I am happy to be moving on to face new challenges and opportunities, I will miss many aspects of NPS," said Millsaps. "NPS has a unique mission and a really special faculty and staff that serves that mission."

Millsaps has served in various academic, directorship and chairman positions at NPS from 1992 to the present. He has advised nearly 100 students over that span, and says it's one of the aspects of his tenure at NPS that he will greatly miss.

"I will miss the officer students the most," Millsaps noted. "Teaching in the classroom was always very enjoyable, but the one-on-one interactions with my thesis students were really special.

"I've had the tremendous opportunity to have about 100 master, mechanical engineer, and doctoral students during my 23 years on the faculty," he continued. "Probably second to that is the young faculty I hired as department Chairman, who will carry the torch for decades to come and make NPS even better."

Millsaps' appointment to the Senior Executive Service was announced in the July issue of Executive Anchors. He will serve as the director of the Office of Naval Research Aerospace Science Research Division.