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AFRL scientist receives Presidential Meritorious Rank Award

  • Published
  • By Francis L. Crumb
  • Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs
Dr. Donald W. Hanson, director of the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate, has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award.

Administered by the Office of Personnel Management, the award recognizes a small group of career Senior Executives who have demonstrated leadership of vital federal programs, fostered partnerships and community solutions to achieve results, and continuously focused on performing jobs more effectively and efficiently.

Recipients of the award are chosen through a rigorous selection process. They are nominated by their agency heads, evaluated by boards of private citizens, and approved by the President. The evaluation criteria focus on the executive's leadership in producing results.

The Meritorious Executive award is given for long-term accomplishments to no more than five percent of career the Senior Executive Service members. It confers upon the executives an esteemed standing among their SES peers, the federal government's cadre of managers who oversee some of the nation's most important medical, social, environmental, human resource and defense programs.

Dr. Hanson was cited as the Air Force leader for the science and technology of Sensors, Electronics, Signature Control, and Electronic Warfare, and the Department of Defense leader for the science and technology of Anti-Tamper and Software Protection. He was honored for his performance as Director of the AFRL Sensors Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, which he headed from August 2000 until his assignment to the Information Directorate in Rome this past May.

As Sensors Director, Dr. Hanson led a 1,200-person organization of civilian, military, and contractors with an annual budget in excess of $450 million aimed at delivering technology to ensure the nation’s capabilities in aircraft survivability and information superiority are unsurpassed. He provided superior leadership during critical periods of change and established the Sensors Directorate as the global leader of sensor and countermeasure science and technology.

A 1968 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, he was awarded both Master of Science and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Syracuse University. In December 2003, he was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in recognition of his technical leadership in the development and realization of sensors science and technology.