Dr. Robert H. Evans, an engineer at the Naval Research Laboratory, has been honored with the Navy's Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Evans is recognized for the development of outstanding new innovative techniques, methods, and hardware that over an extended period of time have successfully addressed the U.S. Navy's future requirements for effective Electronic Warfare capabilities. The award, presented by NRL's commanding officer, is given for service or contributions resulting in high benefit or value to the Navy.
Evans is cited for his outstanding leadership role in the development of effective and novel electronic warfare (EW) technologies at NRL. His list of accomplishments includes many innovative solutions in the areas of electro-optic/infrared and radio frequency countermeasures as applied to the defense of naval surface combatants against anti-ship cruise missiles. Evans is also commended for his exceptional contributions to the Effectiveness of Navy Electronic Warfare Systems Program (ENEWS). His scientific and engineering efforts, in part, have laid the very foundations of modern electronic warfare.
Evans currently heads the Advanced Techniques Branch in the
Tactical Electronic Warfare Division. This branch leads a research program designed to develop new techniques and devices that most effectively meet the Navy's future self-defense and electronic warfare systems requirements. This program deals with a variety of technical phenomena and related specialties, including radar systems; real-time computing; system modeling and simulation; information processing; signal processing; microelectronics; communications systems; electronic instrumentation; EW systems, techniques and systems effectiveness analysis; and definition of optimum tactics and deployment as related to EW systems and techniques.
Evans graduated from Duke University with a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering. He received his doctorate from George Washington University. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Pi Mu Epsilon. Evans was an instructor at George Washington from 1975 to 1986. He was employed at Harry Diamond Laboratories in 1970 and came to work at NRL as an electronics engineer in 1971. From 1982 to 1998, he served as head of the Digital Technology Section at NRL. In 1998, he was selected to head the Advanced Techniques Branch, the position he holds today.