Significant Technological Breakthrough in a Core Technology Thrust Area

Dr. Mildred Donlon - Intestinal Fortitude program
Defense Sciences Office

Colonel Geoffrey Ling, USA - Revolutionizing Prosthetics program
Defense Sciences Office

Mr. Preston Marshall - Generation Communications (XG) program
Strategic Technology Office

Dr. Jon Mogford - Surviving Blood Loss program
Defense Sciences Office

Dr. Tom Wagner - Joint Air/ Ground Unified Adaptive Replanning (JAGUAR) program
Information Processing Technology Office

Dr. Mildred Donlon - Defense Sciences Office

Dr. Donlon displayed remarkable leadership of the Intestinal Fortitude program in bringing together nutritionists, immunologists, microbiologists, and statistical modelers to work on an important operational challenge. As a result of her dedicated efforts, novel techniques for the identification and characterization of thousands of new strains of gut bacteria are now available, which will lead to new capabilities to improve combat readiness of deployed troops.

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Colonel Geoffrey Ling, USA - Defense Sciences Office

Under Colonel Ling’s leadership, the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program transformed the state of the art in prosthetics from a rudimentary mechanical hook to a fully integrated, shoulder-to-hand prosthetic arm. The innovative prosthetic provides restoration of full range of motion and functionality enabling warfighters injured in combat to regain capabilities that would otherwise have been forever lost.

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Mr. Preston Marshall -Strategic Technology Office

Mr. Marshall provided outstanding leadership of the next Generation Communications (XG) program has resulted in completely new and novel ways to think about availability and access to the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. Current models about RF spectrum availability require users to negotiate access with host nation organizations, a time-consuming and expensive process. XG technology provides the first-ever capability to dynamically and rapidly allocate frequency access based on availability and prevents any chance of interference with existing frequency users. XG’s capabilities obviate the need to negotiate frequency access and give the Joint Forces the unhindered access to spectrum they need to fully exploit their information system advantages for global operations.

As a result of Mr. Marshall’s outstanding efforts, the concepts and business models for RF spectrum access are forever changed. In true DARPA tradition, Mr. Marshall has created a technical surprise that is of enormous benefit to the Department of Defense.

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Dr. Jon Mogford - Defense Sciences Office

Under Dr. Mogford’s leadership, the Surviving Blood Loss program developed innovative therapies that provide at least 6 hours of additional time to a warfighter who has suffered a life-threatening hemorrhage. The results are dramatic: 100 percent lethal hemorrhages are now 95 percent survivable. The therapies have high potential not only for saving warfighters on the battlefield, but also life-saving applications for conditions such as heart attacks and strokes.

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Dr. Tom Wagner - Information Processing Technology Office

Under Dr. Wagner’s outstanding leadership, the Joint Air/ Ground Unified Adaptive Replanning (JAGUAR) program achieved technical breakthroughs in areas others believed were not possible. The program achieved innovations in plan representation, scalability, 4-D airspace management, real-time plan monitoring and failure analysis, and model adaptation. His determination to ignore conventional wisdom will lead to important new capabilities that benefit the Department of Defense.

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2007 Annual Awards Ceremony