Service in a Career of Science and Engineering
SERC researcher Captain (Ret.) William M. Shepherd received the 2023 Chinn Award from the National Defense Industrial Association at their annual Future Force Capabilities Conference in Huntsville, Alabama.
The Chinn Award is presented annually to a government or industry individual who, in the opinion of the Small Arms Committee Executive Board, has made significant contributions to the field of small arms and/or infantry weapons systems that advances U.S. military capability. The Chinn Award may also be conferred to recognize an individual who has performed sustained superior service in a career field of science, engineering, test and evaluation, manufacturing program management, academic study and research, publishing or maintenance relating to military small arms or infantry weapons.
Captain Shepherd is a retired Navy SEAL and NASA astronaut with a distinguished career that includes serving as a platoon commander and operations officer in SEAL teams on both coasts, a mission specialist on three space flights, as program manager for the International Space Station in 1993, and as commander of Expedition-1 onboard the new space station in 2000. He has served on the SERC Advisory Board since 2014 and has contributed extensive knowledge of technology used in the Navy and the Space Program.
In addition, Captain Shepherd co-manages the Capstone Marketplace (CM), a SERC initiative that annually matches university student teams with U.S. military units to explore innovative ways to address real-world challenges. Students form multidisciplinary teams and work collaboratively on academic year projects proposed by DoD units.
“I have had the pleasure and honor of working with Bill Shepherd for several years as part of the Capstone Marketplace,” said colleague Michael DeLorme. “The students are tasked with developing engineering solutions to these projects. To observe Bill Shepherd as he guides these students to understand the problems and develop real and practical solutions is a gift for anyone involved in engineering education. He brings together a mix of technical knowledge, skill, experience, humility, and most critically engineering curiosity that encourages that same curiosity in the students and enables them to bring their engineering knowledge to bear on these challenges.”
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