Released by the NAWCWD China Lake Public Affairs Office

The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) China Lake’s Engineering and Scientist Development Program (ESDP) recently held a ceremony where ten members of the program completed the developmental and rotational assignments and graduated.

The ESDP program is rooted in the 1940’s junior professional (JP) program. In 1998, it expanded to a full developmental program for newly recruited scientists and engineers into journey-level professionals. It entails three to five rotational assignments throughout NAWCWD, 300 hours of training; level two Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act certification, and increasingly responsible work assignments with demonstrated performance at a DP-3 level.

Successful participants participate in areas such as: applied and operations research, design and systems engineering, software design, systems integration, energetic materials, avionics development, electronic warfare plus test and evaluation.

“Many of our top engineers and scientists at Weapons Division today started as JPs—Junior Professionals, as they were called in the predecessor program to the ESDP. ESDP participants work side-by-side with our most experienced employees gaining and transferring their knowledge and expertise,” explained Dave Janiec, director, Weapons and Energetics Department. “In return, the ESDPs bring fresh perspectives and an exuberance that really invigorates our workforce. Both are necessary for the future as we work to provide the best systems to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines,” he added.

Currently at China Lake, there are over 225 young scientists and engineers working in the program. “We have a mature program with well-defined requirements. We hope more people will seek graduation in the future as a formal acknowledgement of their accomplishments and commitment, explained Curtis Davis, ESDP technical coordinator. “ It is likely to open many doors for them in the future.”

Congratulations to: D. Tri Bui, chemical engineer from Calif. State Univ. Long Beach; Cam Chinh, aerospace engineer from Calif. Polytechnic State Univ. (Calif. Poly) San Luis Obispo; Dan Horning, mechanical engineer, Univ. of Notre Dame; Teresa Koch, mechanical engineer from San Diego State Univ.; Jason Lane, electrical engineer from Univ. of Missouri-Rolla; Kelly Lane, mechanical engineer from UC Santa Barbara; Joseph Lindula, electrical engineer from Calif. State Chico; Heather Langston, physicist from Calif. Poly San Luis Obispo; Jonathon Satterthwaite, mechanical/aerospace engineer from Utah State University and Chris Sebastian, aerospace engineer from Calif. Poly San Luis Obispo.

Photo cutline: Dr. Karen Higgins (far left), executive director of NAWCWD, and Dave Janiec (far right), director of Weapons and Energetics Dept., congratulate four of the ten recent ESDP graduates (left to right) Heather Langston, Jason Lane, Cam Chinh, and Chris Sebastian.