Arlington, Va.— On January 9, 2008, at a ceremony at the Office of Naval Research, Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral William Landay III presented the first-ever Award for Outstanding Dedicated Leadership in Executing Future Naval Capabilities to Dr. Peter Craig.
Dr. Craig’s “technical expertise, can-do attitude, and leadership skills have consistently ensured that relevant and timely naval capabilities are being provided to the Navy and Marine Corps,” said Rear Admiral Landay.
Dr. Craig is the program manager for electronic warfare at the Office of Naval Research (ONR). He was hired in 2001 to manage the electronic warfare exploratory research and advanced development programs. Dr. Craig currently oversees ten Future Naval Capability products that are funded at more than $30 million.
Many of the new technologies employed in these projects have been personally pioneered by Dr. Craig, most notably: two-color mid-wave infrared focal plane arrays and cryogenic cooling; multi-band mid-wave infrared laser jammers and jam codes; conformal optical beam directors for laser jammers; and high-temperature towlines for towed radio frequency decoys.
“[Future Naval Capabilities] were formally initiated in 2002 to address priority needs of the fleet and force as identified within the acquisition programs of record within the naval service,” said Rear Admiral Landay. “They currently comprise over 30% of the ONR budget and are absolutely critical to ONR’s continued success in responding to the sailors and marines currently serving in harm’s way.”
Previous to coming to ONR, Dr. Craig worked at Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego as a scientist and program manager in the electro-optics branch of the information, surveillance and reconnaissance department. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Wyoming in 1978 and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1983.