The NPS Department of Operations Research (OR) held its summer quarter Military and Operations Research Society (MORS) Stephen A. Tisdale Graduate Research Award competition in Glasgow Hall, Aug. 23.

“The MORS/Tisdale Award recognizes quality thesis work performed by students within the OR Department and has a near-term benefit to the United States or its allies,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Brian Morgan, program officer.

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Pat Saluke and Lt. Eric Fields, along with Singapore Army Maj. Licun Cai and Israeli Defense Force Army Capt. Shay Liraz competed in this quarter’s competition, presenting their theses and answering questions from the audience.

Following the detailed presentations, and extensive deliberations, a panel of faculty judges selected Fields as the winner of this quarter’s MORS/Tisdale award for his thesis, “Optimally Allocating Naval Surface Assets in Times of Crisis.”

“I wanted to come to NPS to work on a thesis that was meaningful to me, but could also be meaningful to the Navy itself,” said Fields, who will earn his master’s degree in operations research on Sept. 21. “I’m just glad that the Navy is finding some use for the work that I did here.”

The MORS/Tisdale award is named in honor of Lt. Cmdr. Stephen A. Tisdale, a dual-degree graduate of NPS in 1989 who perished in a military aircraft accident on March 21, 1991, while serving with Patrol Squadron 50 off the coast of California. Tisdale’s outstanding and influential thesis, “Assessing Optimal Utilization of Potential Anti-Satellite Architectures,” won the MORS prize for his graduating class, and he was also recognized as the top Space Systems Operations student as well.