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Richard Czernik |
A BRAC Opportunity: Part Two
Richard Czernik
May 2009
The two-hour journey from Fort Monmouth, N.J., to Aberdeen, Md., has been the most recent evolution in MITRE's Rich Czernik's multi-faceted career. "I still work for my same Army sponsor in Fort Monmouth, but moved to Aberdeen shortly after the site opened in 2007 so that I could help prepare for my sponsor's eventual relocation to the Aberdeen Proving Ground," he says.
Czernik first came to MITRE's Fort Monmouth site in 2001 to support the site's Army sponsors. His initial efforts concentrated on radars and other sensor modalities, particularly infrared, visible, radiation, and acoustic sensors.
Other sensor and radar-related work followed. "I participated in a MITRE innovation grant that studied methods for tracking equipment and personnel in a hostile environment. On another project, I assisted an Army customer with the use of radar emissions and specialized devices for tagging blue force [U.S. and allied] personnel, vehicles, and equipment." He has also supported the effort to modernize and expand the Distributed Common Ground System—a network for military information sharing—earlier in his MITRE career.
Today, Czernik has been developing a technology acquisition plan for the U.S. Army Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, and Sensors. He focuses on optimizing his sponsor's research, development, and technology investments. "It's essentially my responsibility to identify the technical shortfalls across several programs," he says. "I then attempt to mold, influence, and shape the technology portfolio, striving to find research and development technologies to mitigate some of those deficits. I then make recommendations on what their technology portfolios should include for government approval and implementation." Czernik is now transitioning into a new role supporting Army Signals and Electronic Warfare.
From Physicist to Optometric Physician—and Back Again
Although he has had a lifelong interest in science and technology, Czernik's career has taken a couple of interesting twists and turns. After completing bachelor's and master's degrees in physics, Czernik started his career working on science and technology issues for the government in the late 1980s. A few years later, he decided to go back to school for a doctoral degree and became an optometric physician in New Jersey with a specialty in the treatment and management of eye disease.
MITRE's Aberdeen Proving Ground site
When MITRE announced it would open a new site at the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Maryland, it was an effort to provide continuous support to the company's Fort Monmouth sponsors, which would be relocating there as a result of the congressionally mandated 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list. Several MITRE employees chose to relocate (including previous Employee Spotlight subject Kathy Flood) in 2007 and get the site up and running. The site expects to have approximately 120 staff when the BRAC relocations are completed in 2011. |
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"I originally entered the field because, having a physics background, I enjoyed optics and wanted to help others in need," explains Czernik. "Later, my practice centered on eye disease, especially the secondary glaucomas and various retinopathies, as well as low vision. I moved away from an optics-focused practice—the typical ‘eyeglasses and contact lens fitting'—that my local colleagues specialized in."
However, as the new millennium approached, Czernik found he wanted a new challenge. "To be honest, I think I just missed physics and engineering, so I went back to school at night taking physics courses while running my practice in the day," he explains. "I managed to get many of the required courses for a Ph.D. completed. I always loved physics and other sciences and started to work part-time for MITRE with plans to eventually leave optometry.
"My first trip for MITRE put me right in Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, when the Pentagon was struck. The experience that day only reinforced my determination to make a career here, serve my country, and move in a whole new direction after my decade-long sojourn in optometry."
Now in his eighth year at MITRE, Czernik is participating in the company's accelerated graduate degree program while he finishes his Ph.D. in physics. "Thanks to MITRE, I am making good progress towards my doctorate. I passed my written qualifiers and orals and hope to finish up my dissertation this year," he says. "At times it's been a real balancing act, but I will finish it eventually!"
Moving to the site shortly after its opening allowed Czernik to begin to lay the groundwork for his sponsor to relocate there. It has also given him a new, albeit temporary, job as the acting Facility Security Officer (FSO) at MITRE Aberdeen.
"As the site evolves and grows, I will transition my duties over to a full-time FSO, but for now it's just one of a few hats I wear," he says.
—by Kay M. Upham
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