Jebsen Appointed as Director For Ship Signatures at Navy Laboratory

Gary M. Jebsen has been elevated to the Senior Executive Service (SES) and the position of Director for Ship Signatures in the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division (NSWCCD). In this role, the Leesburg, Virginia resident serves as both directorate head and leader of the Signatures Group in the Naval Seal Systems Command (NAVSEA). Gary shoulders the responsibility for naval and federal ship design and research, development, test and evaluation, and overall program management in the area of ship signature performance. He is leaving a successful assignment as Submarine Technology Program Manager at the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Carderock commander Captain Steven Petri stated that Gary Jebsen will be invaluable for the future of the Carderock Division and the Navy because of his stature in the scientific community, technical knowledge and leadership track record. Gary began his engineering career in 1969 at the David Taylor Research Center (now NSWCCD) in Bethesda in the Ship Acoustics Department, later spending two years at the submarine base in Groton, Connecticut as the on-site NAVSEA/NSWCCD liaison to the submarine force. He then directed two different branches within the (now) Signatures Directorate at Carderock. These branches pioneered significant new signature measurement systems for submarine operational intelligence collection and for measurement of increasingly quiet U.S. submarines. As program manager for acoustic measurement technology from 1987 until 1996, he was responsible for technical performance and validation of all Navy ship acoustic signature facilities. He managed the development of the revolutionary high gain array used by USNS Hayes for measuring submarine acoustic characteristics in the Bahamas. He was also responsible for the unique intermediate scale measurement system, a technical asset the size of a football stadium under water, used for measuring the acoustic characteristics of quarter-scale submarine models at the NSWCCD Acoustic Research Detachment on Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. Jebsen earned a BS in Ocean Engineering from Florida Atlantic University and an MS in Engineering Acoustics from the Naval Postgraduate School. He received the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 1988 and the Bronze Medal from the American Defense Preparedness Association in 1993.