Each year, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) recognizes highly meritorious research with identifiable impact on the U.S. Navy and Department of War (DOW) with the Menneken Research Awards. For 2025, the Menneken Award recipients are associate professor Alejandro (Andy) Hernandez of the NPS Department of Systems Engineering, and Dr. Britta Hale, a former associate professor in the NPS Department of Computer Science who transitioned full time to serve as director of post quantum cryptography in the DOW’s Office of the Chief Information Officer in February 2026.
Hernandez received the Menneken Award for Significant and Sustained Contribution, recognizing a long-standing record of work with a sustained impact on warfighting effectiveness. His work applies systems engineering, systems analysis, and operations research with an emphasis on delivering assessment tools and insights that leaders can apply directly to solving complex and important problems in the Navy and DOW. Over the past two decades, his work has supported decision-making across multiple operations and strategic contexts.
“My objective is to always provide solutions that are used, not shelved,” Hernandez said. “I have been steadfast in this approach to research since arriving at NPS. Receiving this award tells me that I have been effective in helping military decision-making that has immediate utility and impact in the areas I have chosen.”
Early in his career, Hernandez and his teams contributed analytical support to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) at a time when improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were causing high casualties. Hernandez structured a cross-disciplinary program that engaged all of NPS, with hundred of students and faculty supporting the program, producing prototypes, theses, and scholarly papers.
From 2012 to 2013, Hernandez helped the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) assess force composition issues in Afghanistan, leading to a unique methodology coined post-wargame experimentation and analysis. Hernandez transformed an already executed wargame into an experimentation environment that could be explored to gain new insights.
More recently, Hernandez has led an interdisciplinary research effort informing U.S. Navy future force design, as well as detailed analyses supporting the Joint Staff through integrated deterrence efforts and planning in the Indo-Pacific. His work combines mission engineering frameworks, systems thinking, and high-fidelity computational experiments, as well as geopolitical and economic analysis to guide choices about force capability requirements and operational postures.
“We’re applying multiple fields of study to answer one very critical question: how do you reduce China’s desire to seize and control Taiwan?” Hernandez said. “We know that economic deterrent options will not be the end all, be all. We just want to understand whether or not these economic initiatives would actually move the deterrence needle in the right direction.”
The more important idea is to find combinations of economic and military deterrent options that produce greater deterrence than their separate effects, he added.
“Our final analysis will inform the Joint Staff J7, Industrial Base Policy, and hopefully, the INDOPACOM commander,” Hernandez said. “In so doing, we can contribute to addressing one of the most difficult security issues that the U.S. and its allies face.” Hernandez’s research team presented the final results of this classified study to the Joint Staff J7’s Director of Joint Force Integration in January 2026.
Hernandez’s other research portfolio is in operational energy. The interdisciplinary nature of his work merged into one effort to examine contested logistics and sustainment infrastructures to determine how to support the Navy’s maritime forces and systems in the Indo-Pacific theater. Again, Hernandez developed a program that incorporated experts throughout the NPS campus to address numerous energy challenges.
His work will continue to shape tools and analyses that support decision-making across the Navy and DOW. By delivering decision-support research focused on operational issues, his efforts strengthen the connection between academic inquiry and real-world impact. This approach aligns closely with NPS’ mission to deliver warfighting advantage through education and research.
Dr. Britta Hale, currently serving as director of post quantum cryptography for the U.S. Department of War Chief Information Officer, is the recipient of the Menneken Award for Highly Meritorious Research, recognizing her exemplary work as a member of NPS’ computer science department.
Hale is widely recognized for her expertise in cryptography, with further applications in security for constrained and disrupted environments. Her NPS research focused on protecting data and communications when systems must operate with limited infrastructure and under adversary interference. This field is increasingly critical as military operations become more contested and reliant on autonomous and networked systems.
Her work includes designing cryptographic systems that resist next-generation threats, such as quantum computing, and adapting those designs into systems that can be deployed on lightweight or unmanned platforms. Several of her contributions have transitioned from theoretical research into operational use, including adversary detection protocols that have been internationally standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Hale has driven conceptual design of security for unmanned systems that support quantum resistant security for light weight devices.
Hale’s work spans both classified and unclassified areas with direct operational relevance, including support for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command operations. Her expertise helps ensure that secure communications and decision-making can persist even when networks are degraded, supporting distributed operations in challenging environments.
In addition to the individual accomplishments of the winners, the Menneken Awards selection committee acknowledged the collective efforts of faculty reviewers and nominators across campus. This year’s committee was chaired by associate professor Douglas L. Van Bossuyt and included distinguished professor Frank Giraldo, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Michael Moran, and Associate Provost for Research Alan Van Nevel.
Established in 1988 in honor of Carl E. Menneken, the school’s first Dean of Research, the Menneken Awards recognize NPS researchers that advance scientific knowledge and provide operational relevance to Navy and defense missions.