Respected Faculty Recognized for Superior Service
Today@NPS
Respected Faculty Recognized for Superior Service
By Javier Chagoya
NPS Department of Systems Engineering Professor David Olwell dons the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal presented Dec. 21 for his leadership efforts both on campus and within the systems engineering discipline. Olwell is one of two respected university faculty presented with Superior Civilian Service Awards in recent days.
Department of Defense Analysis and Graduate School of Business and Public Policy Professor Nancy Roberts, who retires from the university Dec. 31, was also presented a Superior Civilian Service Award for her near 30 years of dedicated service to the university. Roberts holds a dual appointment to NPS' Graduate School of Business and Public Policy and Graduate School of Operational and Information Sciences, and is well known for her recent efforts to champion the Design Thinking problem solving methodology across campus.
"I am very fortunate in that I was able to serve in many departments and schools during my career at NPS," said Roberts. "Innovative problem solving knowledge, skills and competencies transfer well across disciplines and departments."
Among her many past achievements include her role as co-founder of the Common Operational Research Environment (CORE) Lab, a center that has developed groundbreaking applications in the visual representation of geospatial and social networks. And although Roberts officially retires at the end of December, she will continue on a part time basis to lead and support the NPS Design Thinking Community she has helped build over the last 10 years.
Olwell began his NPS career as an associate professor in the Department of Operations Research before moving on to Systems Engineering as a professor and past chair.
"I worked with the highest quality of people – the faculty, staff and bright students – across the entire [NPS] campus, and that is something I'll remember fondly. And despite the challenges we all experienced, our people continued with astonishing progress," said Olwell.
Of his many accomplishments and contributions in the past three years include serving as Faculty Council Chair where he led committees on joint policy, the Faculty Pink Book and oversight of the Command Climate Survey. He also served as co-editor of the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering, or BKCASE, an effort to create a comprehensive, living guide to the full discipline of systems engineering.