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Chadwick receives U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal

Award recognizes contributions to research programs and support to cadets at West Point
Colonel Ray Nelson, U.S. Army, (right) acting head of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, presented Kenneth Chadwick with the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal at a ceremony held this past June.
Caption:
Colonel Ray Nelson, U.S. Army, (right) acting head of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, presented Kenneth Chadwick with the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal at a ceremony held this past June.

Dr. Kenneth M. Chadwick, a senior staff member in the Tactical Defense Systems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, was awarded the U.S. Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal for his service to the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point.

As part of a 2009 to 2011 assignment to the USMA, Chadwick established a research center operated under USMA's Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering and sponsored by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). The mission of the center is to promote and provide academic research opportunities for cadets and faculty, both civilian and military. Topics of study include areas of interest to the SMDC mission and other space and missile defense needs.

As director of the center, Chadwick supervised the construction of laboratory space for experimental and computational research, developed undergraduate courses, and established an externally funded research program and summer academic internships with other institutions and military sites. The award also recognized his activities in fostering cadet development — teaching courses in the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering as an assistant professor and providing support to the Astronomy Club and to the lacrosse program as a mentor and academic advisor to the players.

Since joining Lincoln Laboratory in 2000, Chadwick has participated in studies on directed energy countermeasures and hybrid airships, managed programs in the development and flight testing of a variety of missile defense payloads, and directed a long-term program to design, fabricate, integrate, and flight test an instrumented boosted target for an airborne laser. He served as an assistant and associate leader of the Aerospace Engineering Group. Prior to working at the laboratory, he was a principal scientist and head of the Aerospace Sciences Department at the Calspan Corporation in Buffalo, N.Y. An associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), he has been active in the Thermophysics Technical Committee of the AIAA. Chadwick holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University and MS and PhD degrees in aerospace engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

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