THE AMERICAN SOCIETY
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 RADM David P. Sargent and RADM Jay M. Cohen, USN, present the Solberg Award to Dr. Colen Kennell |
CITATION:
Dr. Colen Kennell has demonstrated exceptional leadership and superb technical acumen in establishing and leading innovation cells that were focused on advancing the state of the art and developing innovative design concepts in key technology areas including high speed sealift; small, high-speed naval combatant ships; and advanced sea basing concepts. In each key area Dr. Kennell's teams evaluated a wide range of system concepts, assessed the adequacy of critical technologies to support those concepts, defined and ranked the research and development needed to bring the critical technologies to the desired state of readiness, and developed a comprehensive technology development plan to serve as a roadmap for the maturation of critical technologies to reduce the technical risk for design and construction of preferred system concepts.
In carrying out his innovative and far-ranging research, Dr. Kennell has not only achieved remarkable advances in technology, but he has also significantly refined and improved the technology development process. He has led his innovation cells in a collaborative way that has enhanced the knowledge and understanding of team members, encouraged creativity and communication, fostered the development and improvement of design and analysis tools and instilled an emphasis on system level understanding with a bias toward implementation.
These notable achievements add to a long and distinguished record of nurturing
highly innovative research and development teams and producing creative results
that have fostered revolutionary improvements in the design and construction
of advanced naval vehicles. Dr. Colen Kennell has earned a reputation as the
Navy's leading technical authority for advanced naval vehicles and he is truly
most deserving of the ASNE Solberg Award for 2003.