Skip to main content

Search Results

History-Making Oceanographer and Ret. Navy Captain Dies at 92

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh, best known for his daring dive to the deepest spot on Earth, nearly 36,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, has died at age 92. Walsh was a co-pilot of the Trieste bathyscaphe, a deep submergence vehicle acquired by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 1958. Two years later, on January 23, 1960, Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard, son of the inventor of the bathyscaphe, became the first humans to descend into the Challenger Deep, located in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. “ONR sponsored the Trieste, but it was then-Lt. Don Walsh who made the very daring decision to make the first descent into the deepest spot of the earth’s ocean. Walsh was a Navy officer, a submariner, an adventurer, and an oceanographer. To his family, we extend our deepest condolences and gratitude for allowing him to explore, and share his extraordinary experiences and knowledge with us,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus.
November 16, 2023

Awesome Academics: NPS Students Win CNR Awards in Autonomous Systems

A U.S. Marine and Coast Guardsman each recently received a Chief of Naval Research (CNR) Award for Excellence in Intelligent Autonomous Systems from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS).
December 04, 2023

Mighty Mentorship: Navy Civilian Employee Wins DoD STEM Advocacy Award

Juan Lafuente, head of the Nuclear Command Control and Communications Messaging and Interior Communications Branch at Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific, recently won the Department of Defense (DoD) STEM Advocate of the Quarter award for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023.
December 20, 2023

ONR-Sponsored Research Could Potentially Lead to Millions of New Materials

Extraordinarily rugged with a melting temperature of several thousand degrees Fahrenheit. That describes the results of research into new ceramic materials sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and recently published in the Journal Nature. A research team, led by ONR’s Principal Investigator, Dr. Stefano Curtarolo, Duke University, developed a computational method for creating new types of ceramics using transition metals – carbonitrides or borides – through a process called Disordered Enthalpy-Entropy Descriptor (DEED). The applications are endless, said Dr. Eric Wuchina, a research materials engineer who was the program officer with ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons department when Curtarolo’s research team was awarded the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). According to Wuchina, the variety of new compositions could create potentially millions of new materials.
January 04, 2024

Freedom of Information Act

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Privacy Office is responsible for processing Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests.
April 21, 2022

CNR to Talk Naval Innovation and Capabilities at Sea-Air-Space

Can the U.S. Navy’s current force structure model, which has been immensely successful since World War II, remain strong in the face of new threats—or does it require an overhaul? How can the Department of the Navy (DoN) meet future challenges and strengthen its ability to develop and adopt new capabilities?
March 30, 2022

Celebrating Science: DoN Promotes Student Outreach at Navy League STEM Expo

The Sea Cadets—members of a maritime-based program established by the Navy League of the United States to create a favorable image of the Navy on the part of American youth—were getting ready for a robotics competition they would hold at the next day’s Navy League STEM Expo.
April 22, 2022

Navy ‘SCOUTs’ the Digital Battlespace to Test Operational Problems

A partnership involving the Office of Naval Research (ONR); the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (DASN RDT&E); and the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) is conducting the first virtual sprint demonstration of the Aggregated Digital Ecosystem for Naval Advantage (ADENA) during February and March 2022.
March 03, 2022

Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Young Investigator Program

ONR Funding opportunity announcement for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Young Investigator Program
April 25, 2022

Remarkable Robotics: ROVs Shine in ONR-Sponsored International SeaPerch Challenge

More than 130 teams of elementary, middle and high school students from around the world competed at the annual International SeaPerch Challenge on June 4 at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.
June 10, 2022