A few weeks ago I had the tremendous honor of receiving this award. Below are my remarks and a wonderful picture of my advisor Armin Troesch who presented the award, ASNE president Ronald Kiss, and me (photo provided by ASNE–thanks Jared!).
Thank you. I am going to keep this short as my toddler in attendance will likely express out loud what many might be feeling regarding long acceptance remarks. Mostly I want to say a handful of thank you’s. I have been lucky to have really great advising, as an undergraduate from the late Pat Curtiss and as a graduate student from Armin Troesch. Thank you Armin for being such a wonderful advisor and setting my career on the right path. I am also fortunate to have fantastic colleagues at Virginia Tech, particularly Al Brown who has diligently kept me out of trouble, and my amazing students who make me look good. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those program officers who have supported my work: Pat Purtell, Kelly Cooper, Bob Brizzolara, Eduardo Misawa, and Jay Falker. Every one of them took a chance on me being able to broaden my early research in ways that would support the ONR, NSF, and NASA missions, and I appreciate their faith in me, and my team’s abilities. I want to thank all the good folks at Carderock who have let me spend two summers in Bethesda working with Bill Belknap, Judah Milgram, Brad Campbell, and others, and a sabbatical at CCD enabled by Tim Coats, Dave Pogorzelski, and my personal favorite CCD researcher, my husband Charlie Weil. And I want to thank ASNE. ASNE has provided me leadership opportunities from the start of my career; opportunities to directly support or even work side by side with Captains, Admirals, Program Officers, SESs, industry leaders, and full Professors. ASNE leadership and staff have worked hard to make opportunities for students and young professionals. At this ASNE Day we have seen an exciting student program, put together by a team of young professionals led by Justin Stepanchick, showcasing exceptional student research. Wednesday night, the first ever Student Opportunities Committee, with direct representation to ASNE Council, was elected. ASNE is a warm place for students and young professionals and that, above all else, is why I am so honored to be receiving this Rosenblatt award for young naval engineers from ASNE. Thank you.