Dr. Gerard M. Exley Honored with Society of Women Engineers' Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award.

Business Editors

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2003

Gerald M. Exley, Ph.D. of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division recognized for his significant contribution to the acceptance and advancement of women in the field of engineering at Society's national conference

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) announced today that Dr. Gerald M. Exley is the recipient of the 2003 SWE Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award for his outstanding record of hiring, promoting, and recognizing women in the Submarine Communications Division, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport and for fostering valuable career opportunities and advancement for women engineers and scientists.

Throughout his management career, Dr. Exley has achieved an outstanding record for hiring, promoting, and recognizing women in the field of submarine communications. His innate sense of fairness, coupled with his mentoring management style, has resulted in the advancement of women in a field that has been traditionally, and still is, dominated by men. During his dual-hatted tenure as NUWC's submarine communications program manager and submarine communications division head, he has consistently hired apprentice and journeyman women engineers, elevated or promoted women to staff or deputy program management positions, and encouraged growth and education.

"The extraordinary challenges women engineers face are diminished when courageous and innovative leadership supports them," said Alma Martinez Fallon, president of the Society of Women Engineers. "Dr. Exley's efforts can serve as a model for executives championing women in engineering and have resulted in outstanding retention and advancement of technical women at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center."

Dr. Exley joined the Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC), New London, Conn., in the summer of 1982. NUSC was the predecessor organization to what is now NUWC. Assigned to the submarine system engineering branch during the period 1982-1986, Dr. Exley worked on a number of submarine antenna and radio room projects. In 1988, he became a member of the adjunct faculty of Rensselear Polytechnic Institute at Hartford, where he continues to teach courses in networking and computer science. In 2001, Dr. Exley was promoted to senior scientific technical manager for submarine communications and became the NUWC submarine electromagnetic systems deputy department head for technology.

Dr. Exley received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering form the University of Hartford in 1982, a Masters in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1986 and was selected for the NUSC long-term training program and began two years of full-time study, which culminated in a Doctorate in electrical engineering in December 1987. In 2001, Dr. Exley was also honored as a NUWC Distinguished Chair in the area of submarine communications.

The SWE Rodney D. Chipp Award will be formally presented tonight at the Society of Women Engineers' National Conference Achievement Awards Banquet in Birmingham, Alabama. The National Conference, "Supporting the World Through Engineering," is being held in Birmingham, AL October 9 - 11. The over 3,000 attendees include professionals from every discipline of the engineering profession and a large number of engineering students and educators. The 2004 Conference is scheduled for October 13 - 16, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

About SWE

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a non-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and receive the recognition and credit for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. For more information about the Society please visit www.swe.org or call [phone].