The NPS Foundation team spent the week at Sea-Air-Space 2025 strengthening industry partnerships, fostering community with alumni and DOD leaders, and highlighting the vital national security impact of the Naval Postgraduate School.
Highlights included:
- Secretary of the Navy John Phelan's message to attendees where he highlighted the need to foster an adaptive, accountable force, accept more shared risk with our industry partners, and challenge the status quo in order to enhance the U.S. Navy's strength and America's dominance at sea.
- NPS Alumni supported the NPS booth exhibit with Sea-Air-Space attendees, highlighting their personal experiences and the impact of NPS on developing solutions and leaders ready to employ them.
- Exploring new and expanded collaboration opportunities with our industry partners to drive research and development in AI, autonomy and space and support a tech-enabled DOD workforce.
- Connecting with the Naval Postgraduate School & U.S. Naval War College communities at our annual reception.
Over 200 Naval Postgraduate School and U.S. Naval War College alumni, and DOD and industry members gathered at the Sea-Air-Space 2025 Alumni reception hosted by the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation & Alumni Association and the Naval War College Foundation on April 7 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
Guest speaker The Hon. Terence G. Emmert, Director of DARPA's Adaptive Capabilities Office and NPS '95, reflected on his time at NPS and the vital role that military education has to play in preparing services members to adopt and implement critical technologies now and in the future fight.
Rear Adm. Darryl Walker, President of the Naval War College, also made remarks to the assembled group. The event demonstrated the power of the two institutions working together for the common goal of making our Navy and Marine Corps more lethal and capable.
Nearly 200 students graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School at the Winter Quarter commencement ceremony, officially joining the NPS alumni community. Keynote speaker retired Adm. Cecil D. Haney, MS in Engineering Acoustics and MS in Systems Technology ’87, former commander of U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Pacific Fleet, reflected on the institution’s lasting impact on his career. “My critical thinking and problem-solving abilities as a leader, as a warfighter and operator, significantly improved while I was here at NPS,” he shared. Haney encouraged graduates to continue leveraging NPS as a national resource throughout their careers.
Watch full ceremony here
Read full story here
Lt. Joseph Elvig’s thesis on maritime missile defense earned the Surface Navy Association’s Excellence in Surface Warfare Research Award. Elvig credits his time at NPS for preparing him to think holistically—considering the full lifecycle of emerging technologies, from design and development to implementation and sustainment. Watch his interview. Watch full interview here.
Lt. Allyson Franchi, focused her thesis on improving Sailor retention amid ongoing recruiting challenges. Her research, which earned the Chief of Naval Personnel Award for Academic Excellence, used statistical modeling to explore organizational factors contributing to first-term attrition. Franchi credits NPS with helping her shift from deckplate leadership to a more strategic mindset as she prepares for her next assignment at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Watch full interview here.
Lasers Destroy Drones as Additive Manufacturing Builds Them
The Naval Postgraduate School’s most recent Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX), held February 3–7, brought together industry, military operators, and government evaluators to explore and accelerate mission-focused technologies in a test environment designed for rapid experimentation.
By bringing together technologists, active-duty warfighters, and government evaluators in one environment, JIFX shortens the feedback loop between development and deployment. It allows small, innovative companies to break through traditional barriers to testing, gives operators a direct hand in shaping tools they’ll use in the field, and creates opportunities for integration between systems—like powering directed energy weapons with quiet, mobile batteries or manufacturing drones at the edge.
Here’s what JIFX looked like this quarter:
For the DOD, this means faster fielding of mission-critical capabilities, tighter alignment between technology development and operational needs, and more agile responses to emerging threats. Read more.
Defense Innovation Leader Doug Beck to Speak at NPS' Annual Acquisition Symposium and Innovation SummitDoug Beck, Director of the Defense Innovation Unit, will join NPS President Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau (Ret.) as a keynote speaker chat at the 22nd Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, May 7–8.
NPS MOVES program and Marine Students support Project Tripoli
Marine Corps students in Naval Postgraduate School’s MOVES program are applying their skills to support Project Tripoli, the Marine Corps’ effort to build an integrated LVC training environment. In a recent MV4504 exercise, students designed and tested LVC components using real data from the Monterey Peninsula, preparing them to contribute to future training modernization efforts in the fleet.
2024 Menneken Awards Honor NPS Professors for Critical Contributions to Fleet Readiness and Energy Resilience
Congratulations to the 2024 Menneken Research Award recipients, Distinguished Professor Frank Giraldo and Associate Professor Douglas Van Bossuyt, for their impactful contributions to Navy and DoD research. Their pioneering work in atmospheric modeling and systems engineering exemplifies the Naval Postgraduate School’s mission to advance national defense through innovation and collaboration.
The Hidden Influence of Small Navies: An Interview with Dr. Thomas Jamison
Dr. Narducci and Dr. Jamison, professors at Naval Postgraduate School discuss Jamison's new book, "The Pacific's New Navies: An Ocean, Its Wars, and the Making of US Sea Power." One lesson Jamison shares is a timely reminder that, while great powers are central to global security concerns, the actions of smaller states can have a disproportionate impact on international affairs: "Naval Modernization Industrialization in relatively small navies disproportionately affected U.S. security debates in the late 19th century... and that's something we should keep in mind in our present. The current great power competition with Russia and China is not just a question of bilateral or trilateral relations. But small states, medium size states have a tremendous amount of agency and we ignore that agency at our peril."
Building a Community of Wargaming at the Precommissioning Level
By Cmdr. Kenneth Maroon, PhD in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulations (MOVES) ’20 and MS in MOVES ‘09, and Dr. Franklin Kenter
Reimagine the Role of Amphibious Forces in Campaigning
By Lt. Col Dylan Buck, MA in Security Studies ‘21
South Korea & UK: A Critical Partnership for Indo-Pacific Security
Jihoon Yu, MA in Security Affairs ‘06
The Price of Security: U.S. Strategy, European Dependency, and the Future of NATO
By Siamak Naficy, Senior Lecturer, Department of Defense Analysis
The Trident Room Podcast – 64 – Maj. Kyle Schulz – Academic Arsenal Series, Food Security and Resilience in the Philippines
Interview with Maj. Kyle Schulz, MS in Defense Analysis ‘24
Understanding India's Naval Deterrence [YouTube Seminar]
By Diana Wueger, Faculty Associate for Research, National Security Affairs
Navigating the staffing crisis in law enforcement: A strategic call for transformation
By Lt. Charles Fisher, MA in Security Studies ‘11
Underway in the North Atlantic
By Capt. John C. Nygaard, U.S. Navy (Ret.), MS in Applied Science ‘91
Quantum computers will be a dream come true for hackers, risking everything from military secrets to bank information. Can we stop them?
Quoted – Professor Britta Hale, PhD, Computer Science Department
‘Not your normal salvage operation’: Picking up the pieces after the Key Bridge collapse
Quoted - Robyn Bianchi, MS in Mechanical Engineering ‘18
Rewriting Social Security will be a train wreck
Nick Hodges, MS in Information Technology Management ‘95
Brian Erickson, MBA ‘03, new DoD Emerging Technologies Lead at NVIDIA
Brian Erickson, MBA '03
Sanjay Virmani Named Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco Field Office
Sanjay Virmani, MBA '21
Protecting the mission: John O’Kleasky takes top prize
John O'Kleasky, MA in Security Studies '14
NCIS leader, alumnus chosen as W&M’s associate vice president of public safety
Cliff Everton, CHDS Executive Leaders Program ‘22
CHDS Alum Supports U.S. Border Patrol’s EMS System During Massive Migrant Surge
Dr. John Martel, CHDS Executive Leaders Program ‘21
Saildrone Appoints Vice Admiral John Mustin as President
Vice Adm. John Mustin (Ret.), MS in Operations Research ‘96
Basanite Industries, Inc. Appoints Michael D. Nelson as Chief Executive Officer
Lt. Col Michael D. Nelson (Ret.), MA in Defense Analysis ‘11
Colorado Health Institute Adds Three Members to Board of Trustees
Liane Jollon, MA in Security Studies ‘19
Governor Abbott Appoints Rolen, Spencer To Sulphur River Basin Authority Board Of Directors
Jason E. Spencer, MS in Management ‘97
Kristi Rollwagen Joins Emergency Management Partners as Senior Advisor
Kristi Rollwagen, CHDS Executive Leaders Program ‘11
TSi Welcomes Navy Veteran Greta Densham as VP of Programs to Lead Federal Expansion and Workforce Transformation
Greta Densham, MS in Operations Research ‘07
Historian Barry Strauss wins 2025 Bradley Prize
Dr. Barry Strauss, Former Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Defense Analysis
Senate Confirms John Phelan as Secretary of the Navy
The Senate confirmed John Phelan to lead the Department of the Navy on March 24. “The U.S. Navy is at a crossroads, extended deployments, inadequate maintenance, huge cost overruns, delayed shipbuilding, failed audits, subpar housing, and sadly, record high suicide rates are systemic failures that have gone unaddressed for far too long, and frankly, this is unacceptable,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee in his hearing. Phelan told the panel the Trump administration’s top priority for the Department of the Navy was shipbuilding. Read more.
Trump taps hypersonics expert to oversee Pentagon’s S&T portfolio
In the wake of Hegseth’s software memo, experts eye further change
The South Pacific Is the New Frontline in the Rivalry with China
China Swoops In to Replace Asian USAID Efforts Axed by Trump
