1423 Powhatan St., Suite 1
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Phone (703) 836-6727
Fax (703) 836-7491
Email: asnehq@navalengineers.org

 

ASNE is the leading professional engineering society for engineers, scientists and allied professionals who conceive, design, develop, test, construct, outfit, operate and maintain complex naval and maritime ships, submarines and aircraft and their associated systems and subsystems.  ASNE also serves the educators who train the professionals, researchers who develop related technology, and students who are preparing for the profession.  Society activities provide support for the U.S. Navy; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Marine Corps; U.S. Merchant Marine and U.S. Army.

ASNE is the seventh oldest technical society in the United States.  It was founded in 1888 by a group of naval engineering pioneers, most of them officers of the U.S. Navy's Engineering Corps, who sought a unified approach to their profession in order to make the most of new advances in technology. The purposes of ASNE are:           

  • to advance the knowledge and practice of naval engineering in public and private applications and operations,
  • to enhance the professionalism and well-being of members, and
  • to promote naval engineering as a career field.

For 125 years, the Society’s objectives have been strengthened and preserved to meet the changing needs of a time-honored profession. Today ASNE conducts a variety of technical meetings and symposia, publishes the highly regarded Naval Engineers Journal and a number of other technical proceedings and publications, and fosters professional development and technical information exchange through technical committees, local section activities and cooperative efforts with government organizations and other professional societies.

The Society's annual meeting, ASNE Day, is typically held in February of each year in the Washington, DC, area. The meeting features major addresses by high level industry and government leaders and panel discussions by leading members of the profession.  It also includes presentation and discussion of technical papers on a variety of timely naval engineering topics, presentation of the Society's prestigious annual awards and a large exposition with government and industry exhibits covering the full spectrum of naval engineering technology. ASNE Day is highlighted by the Society’s annual Honors Gala, attended by hundreds of executives and senior managers from both government and industry.

Our website is designed to not only serve our members, but also to support scholars, students and others interested in the varied field of naval engineering.  We welcome your suggestions on ways we can improve your experience. 

Mr. Thaddeus “Thad” G. Bell

Award: Harold E. Saunders Award
Year: 2015
Recipient:
Mr. Thaddeus “Thad” G. Bell
Reason: for his significant contribution to naval engineering as set forth in the following

CITATION:

Mr. Bell’s lifetime contributions in naval engineering commenced upon graduation from Yale with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, and commissioning into the US Navy in November of 1945. In 1947 Mr. Bell began civilian employment at the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory. By 1958 Mr. Bell’s work was already well-recognized in high echelons of the Navy and in engineering and scientific communities. In the same year, he was elected as a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. For the design of his pioneering SQS-26 active/passive sonar system and the technical direction of the ensuing development work over a ten-year period, Mr. Bell was later awarded the 1968 American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) RADM Solberg Award for “outstanding achievement in research and development related to naval engineering.” In the following years, Mr. Bell continued his exemplary efforts toward advancing the state-of-the-art and modernizing sonar design on U.S. Fleet combatants and in 1985 Mr. Bell officially retired from federal government service.

Following his retirement, Mr. Bell was presented the Department of the Navy’s Superior Civilian Service award, “in recognition and appreciation of superior service which has been of exceptional value and great benefit to the Navy.” In 1986, Mr. Bell was awarded the David Bushnell Award by the American Defense Preparedness Association (which later merged with the National Defense Industrial Association) in recognition of “major contributions to the science and practice of underwater acoustics in a career spanning more than forty-three years as Naval Officer, Federal Scientist and private sector Senior Scientist.”

Since his retirement, even to the present day at over the age of 90, Mr. Bell continues to consult and publish on sonar design for the Navy. In 2010 Mr. Bell was given permission by the U.S. Navy to publish in the open literature an historical technical memoir of his work on the SQS-26 active/passive sonar and, in August 2014, Mr. Bell visited the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI to deliver a technical seminar to a large auditorium full of Senior and Junior Navy scientists and engineers. Based on his lifetime of contributions to the American Society of Naval Engineers and the fields of naval engineering and Navy sonar, it is with great pleasure that the Society names Thaddeus G. Bell the recipient of the 2015 Harold E. Saunders Award.