NSMRL Announces Scientist of the Year and Junior Scientist of the Year

Story by Emily Swedlund

Naval Medical Research Command

Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory (NSMRL) has announced the winners of their 2023 Scientist and Junior Scientist of the Year awards: Dr. Jeffrey Bolkhovsky and Mr. Matthew Daley, respectively. Bolkhovsky was awarded the Dr. Edward E. Cudahy Excellence in Scientific Leadership award and Daley received the Dr. Jo Ann Smith Kinney Excellence in Scientific Support award.

The Cudahy Award is presented to senior scientists who are directly involved with leading and conducting research at NSMRL. This award honors Dr. Edward A. Cudahy for his important contributions as a principal investigator during his time at NSMRL, where he led research on underwater acoustics, hearing, and blast effects.

Bolkhovsky, who received the Cudahy award, leads a research team focused on optimizing human-machine interactions and enhancing human performance. He has led efforts to develop a physiologically-based predictive model for performance decrements due to sleep deficiency; physiological metrics to track operational performance in cold environments; and an electronic decision aid to improve submarine escape time calculations. Also, he is leading research to improve attention and target detection for sonar operations.

“Dr. Bolkhovsky is the researcher that everyone else in the lab looks to for inspiration,” said Dr. Brandon Casper, department head to both Bolkhovsky and Daley. “He is incredibly active and respected in the field, brings a lot of funding in for the lab, and is the leader of a highly productive research team. He is absolutely deserving of this award!”

Currently, Bolkhovsky is supporting the fleet integration of the Optimized Watchbill Logistics (OWL) tool, which monitors and assesses fatigue-related tasks. In 2023, he provided human factors expertise to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense and the Naval Institute of Undersea Vehicle Technology and was awarded the Dr. Delores M. Etter Emergent Scientist of the Year Award.

The Kinney Award is for junior scientists at NSMRL who provided outstanding support in the execution of scientific research. Dr. Jo Ann S. Kinney, the award’s namesake, contributed to understanding how visual issues impact the safety and performance of Navy divers, submariners, and rescue personnel. Kinney started at NSMRL as a Bachelors-level research assistant, and rose to prominence over her career, eventually becoming the youngest winner of the Federal Women’s Award in 1969.

Kinney Award winner Daley is NSMRL’s leading artificial intelligence and machine learning engineer and provides wide-ranging support to all NSRML team members. He has developed research proposals, executed experiments, conducted data analyses, created prototypes, and published technical outcomes.

“Mr. Daley is the classic “Jack of all Trades.” His incredibly diverse skillset allows him to support numerous projects resulting in him making significant contributions in a variety of research areas within the lab,” Casper added, “Mr. Daley has developed himself into a subject matter expert in machine learning and artificial intelligence to fill this gap for the lab.”

In 2023, Daley supported three research protocols focused on utilizing physiological metrics to track performance in cold environments for the general population and divers. He also worked on quantifying and mitigating the effects of sleep loss on mission performance in unmanned underwater vehicle operations.

NSMRL is proud to recognize the achievements of Bolkhovsky and Daley, who embody NSMRL’s mission and vision by going above and beyond to support the warfighter.

NSMRL, part of Navy Medicine’s Research & Development Enterprise, and based out of Groton, Connecticut, sustains the readiness and superiority of undersea warfighters through innovative health and performance research and works to lead the world in delivery science solutions to ensure undersea warrior dominance.