David Pistacchio, a senior technologist in the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport’s Chief Technology Office, was selected for the 2023 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Fred E. Saalfeld Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Science.
The award is granted on a highly selective basis and recognizes naval research scientists for extraordinary lifetime achievements in science that contributed substantially to the knowledge and capabilities of the Department of the Navy (DON), Department of Defense and the nation. It is the highest award that ONR confers on a naval research scientist.
Pistacchio, a resident of Narragansett, Rhode Island, is a senior technologist for acoustic signal processing and has earned a reputation as a consummate professional over the course of his 42-year career, with the last 30 years working for the Navy. He has distinguished himself as a national and international subject matter expert in active and passive acoustic signal processing.
Throughout his career, he has kept a keen focus on what the Navy needs to gain a warfighting advantage and deliver new capabilities to the fleet,” the award states.
Pistacchio recently supported the next-generation attack submarine (SSN(X)) program by conducting multiple studies that predicted the relative “acoustic advantage” against future adversaries given various tradeoffs between radiated noise and sensor configurations. Pistacchio upgraded numerical models of recognition differential used in the analysis to account for the latest signal processing implemented into sonar.
“This work greatly improved the accuracy of predictions, as demonstrated by follow-on studies conducted by independent collaborators, confirming results from his upgraded model,” the award states. Chief of Naval Research Kurt J. Rothenhaus congratulated Pistacchio for being selected for the award, which is in honor of Dr. Fred E. Saalfeld, ONR’s executive and technical director from 1993 to 2002.
“You have made outstanding contributions that are essential to the U.S. fleet’s success and several of these contributions will continue to have significant positive impacts to the submarine sonar systems in the future,” Rothenhaus said.
Pistacchio will be recognized at a future ceremony.