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Dr. Frances H. Arnold, a former ONR-sponsored performer, received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the first American woman to win science’s most recognized award.

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.

To determine the cause of extreme fatigue in Navy divers, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring work examining the most critical weapon in a diver’s arsenal—oxygen itself.

The Department of the Navy’s Floating Instrument Platform (R/P FLIP) is celebrating its 50th year of service June 29. With an ability to drift over the ocean like a ship—yet transform into a vertical buoy in pursuit of scientific research—the 355-foot research vessel is able to conduct investigations in a number of fields, including acoustics, oceanography, meteorology and marine mammal observation.

The Office of Naval Research is helping students with computer-based applications similar to programs originally designed for Navy recruits.

With ONR support, engineers at MIT have designed a portable measurement system to precisely monitor the amount of electricity used by household appliances, lighting fixtures and electronic devices.

In a study that could improve how people learn and retain information, ONR Global-sponsored researchers in Rome significantly boosted the memory and mental performance of laboratory mice through electrical stimulation.

A dynamic era in naval oceanography recently ended as the iconic Floating Instrument Platform — popularly known as FLIP — was officially retired from service. Built in 1962 with funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), FLIP helped generations of scientists and oceanographers better understand the mysteries of the sea, including internal waves, air-sea interaction and long-range sound propagation. Sadly, age and exorbitant life-extension costs resulted in the platform being disestablished. On Aug. 3, a solemn gathering of well-wishers watched as FLIP was towed, at sunset, to a dismantling and recycling facility. Last month, a formal good-bye ceremony was hosted by the Marine Physical Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Though retired, FLIP will live on at Scripps. One of its booms (crane-like arms for suspending instruments) will be installed on the Scripps research pier in La Jolla and used to deploy instruments. Also, artifacts from the platform will be displayed in a permanent exhibit at Scripps’ Birch Aquarium.

Even the least graceful among us has motor control the most high-tech unmanned undersea vehicle would envy, thanks to a region of the brain that allows our bodies to carry out complex maneuvers.

In a first-of-its-kind transatlantic hybrid event, the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy recently converged at His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Portsmouth and Downtown Norfolk, Virginia, to explore how cutting-edge computer vision technologies can revolutionize the maintenance and sustainment of platforms across air, land, and maritime domains, bolstering overall warfighting capabilities.