The Meyer Scholar Program develops officers who are competent and confident in their ability to acquire and employ advanced naval warfare systems. 


Developing Combat System Experts

Meyer Scholars at NPS
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COMBAT SYSTEM COURSES

The signature combat system course of the Meyer Scholar Program is an examination of combat systems with the objective of understanding how and why they are developed and employed. The course explores how strategic, operational, and technical requirements flow down and influence the allocation of essential functions to components and elements of the combat system. A case study of the evolution from early Navy missile systems to the AEGIS combat system serves as a source of lessons learned about how and how not to produce highly reliable and effective combat systems. The fundamental theory and principles of detection, control and engagement systems such as AEGIS, Cooperative Engagement Capability and Navy Integrated Fire Control.           

Meyer Scholar Seminar at NPS
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SEMINARS
The Meyer Scholar Seminar Program is a key element in maintaining knowledge and expertise gained in previous operational tours and building an extensive foundation in advanced warfare related technologies and applications needed in assignments after graduation from NPS.   Seminars focus on the technical solutions to key operational problems and an understanding of how and why capabilities are developed and employed. Rather than simply memorizing and regurgitating tactical facts, Scholars learn to apply principles in order to solve novel problems. Seminars are increasing made available to selected audiences in the Navy and Marine Corps         

Meyer Scholar at NPS
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RESEARCH
All Meyer Scholars complete a thesis dealing with the development or employment of naval warfare systems. As an indication of the quality research being done by Meyer Scholars, in the first three years of the program Meyer Scholars have captured ten graduation awards on topics ranging from SPY-6 Radar Wide Band Discrimination Using Machine Learning to AEGIS: A Military Innovation Case Study. Meyer Scholars collaborate with organizations such as the Missile Defense Agency, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory on operationally relevant topics that prepare them for follow-on assignments after leaving NPS.    

About Meyer Scholars

About Meyer Scholars

Threats to naval forces are real and growing and officers with advanced knowledge of naval warfare systems are urgently required to develop capabilities and tactics to contend with them. Meyer Scholars are selected from officers already assigned to the Naval Postgraduate School.  Officers from any Service, any branch, community, or specialty and any curriculum are eligible to be selected as a Meyer Scholar. Our namesake is Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer Wayne E. Meyer - Wikipedia the first and longest serving AEGIS Project Manager and regarded world-wide as the Father of AEGIS.  

All Meyer Scholars complete a thesis which satisfies the requirements of the curriculum in which they are enrolled and addresses a relevant aspect of warfare system development or employment. This flexibility allows, for example, officers pursing technical majors to explore operational employment of advanced technologies and those in non-technical majors to focus on technical aspects rarely addressed in strategic and programmatic disciplines.

Meyer Scholars and their faculty advisors often collaborate with University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCS) such as the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, Naval Warfare Centers and the defense industry.

Meyer Scholars may pursue any major at the Naval Postgraduate School. Representative degrees being pursued by Meyer Scholars include Mechanical, Electrical, and Systems Engineering, Physics, Operations Research, Information Systems Management, Financial Management, Homeland Security, and National Security Affairs.

The common denominator among Meyer Scholars is that all Meyer Scholars participate in the same seminar program, same combat systems course and same tactical data link course.

Meyer Scholars take courses prescribed by the curricula in which they are enrolled. They also take the Meyer Combat Systems Course listed under course numbers PH3993, PC4022, or TS4000. The Meyer Combat System Course includes an examination of strategic guidance that influences high level combat systems requirements, a case study of the evolution of early missile systems to AEGIS, technical foundations of sensors, weapons, and command and control systems as well as the programmatic infrastructure necessary for life cycle support.

With the increasing importance of and reliance upon distributed systems of systems Meyer Scholars also complete the Joint Knowledge Online course Introduction to Joint Multi-Tactical Data Link Network Operations.

For more information on the Meyer Scholar Program contact:


Executive Director
james.timberlake@nps.edu

LT Melissa Pifer

Information Systems
melissa.pifer@nps.edu

LTJG JD Doocy

New Accessions
james.doocy@nps.edu

Chair, Integrated Air and Missile Defense
john.hammerer@nps.edu

NWSI - Meyers Scholars - Schedule

Meyer Scholar Summer 2024 Seminar Program

  • 16 July - Shipboard Communications - ITC John Scanlon, Naval Postgraduate School

  • 23 July - Navy Wide Area Communications - LT Melissa Pifer, Meyer Scholar, Naval Postgraduate School

  • 30 July - Military Satellite Communications - Professor Steve Tackett, Space Systems Academic Group, Naval Postgraduate School

  • 6 August - Secure 5G Edge Clouds for All Domain Command and Control and C5ISR AI/ML in the Electromagnetic Spectrum

  • 13 August - Consolidated Afloat Network and Enterprise Systems (CANES)

  • 20 August - Cyber-Compromised Environment and HF Capabilities Program Executive Office C4I, (PMW 160)

  • 27 August - Missile Defense System Communications Network - Joint Ballistic Missile Defense Training and Education Center

  • 3 September - Underwater Communications - RTX (Raytheon)

  • 10 September - Starlink/Starshield Program Executive Office C4I

For more information: john.hammerer@nps.edu 

Upcoming Events

Check back soon for upcoming events!

Recorded Events

Recorded Meyer Scholars Seminars are currently being collected for display.