Dr. John W. Lyons: Interviews With the Director.

Abstract

Abstract : Dr. John W. Lyons served an exciting and tumultuous five years (1993-1998) as Director of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Dr. Lyons and ARL count a number of significant achievements, despite operating in an environment of government shutdown, uncertain funding, declining personnel resources, and shifting defense priorities. The consolidations of personnel and functions and the major construction projects arising from Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) decisions are almost complete. ARL launched its federated laboratory initiative, entering into cooperative agreements with three industry/university consortia. The U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) transferred into ARL to strengthen and centralize coordination of the Army Materiel Command (AMC) basic research program. The laboratory implemented its new personnel system as a 1,demonstration project. On the technical side, the laboratory focused considerable energies on technologies and systems to digitize the battlefield. ARL demonstrated the GPS registration fuze, and it maintains state-of-the-art supercomputing capabilities at the Major Shared Resource Center. Meanwhile, ARL supported U.S. soldiers deployed to Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia, and ARL is working with the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in the Army After Next (AAN) process.