NSWC Crane Commanding Officer Named Laboratory Director of the Year
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowNaval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division Commanding Officer Captain JT Elder has been named the Laboratory Director of the Year. Each year since 1999, the FLC National Advisory Council has honored Laboratory Directors who have made outstanding contributions to support technology transfer activities in their organizations and the communities they serve. Capt. Elder earned the award for his support of NSWC Crane’s T2 efforts. He is just the third winner of the award from any Naval Surface Warfare Center, and the first since NSWC Crane’s Duane Embree won it in 2013. Since assuming command in June 2014, Capt. Elder has helped elevate NSWC Crane’s T2 program to an unprecedented level in terms of numbers of signed T2 agreements, strategic partnerships with state organizations, universities, and industry, and the size and quality of the lab’s intellectual property (portfolio. NSWC Crane currently has 152 signed T2 Agreements and 514 items in its IP portfolio. Capt. Elder’s commitment to technology transfer is especially significant and noteworthy given the drastic reduction in the overhead budget for the T2 and patent program. During the fiscal year 2016, the T2 lab saw a 33 percent decrease in the number of people paid to support T2. Instead of allowing the budget constraints to stunt the growth of the program, Capt. Elder did everything in his power to encourage more people to get involved with T2 at Crane. Under Capt. Elder’s leadership, NSWC Crane’s IP portfolio has increased by over 40 percent, and Crane’s CRADAs and PLAs have hit record numbers. In addition, the processing time for T2 agreements, which used to take multiple months, has been cut to just weeks.