Navy Scientist Awarded for Improving Quantum Sensor Designs Projected to Impact Metrology, Gravimetry & Topside design,

(NavSeaNavy.mil) A Navy scientist was awarded for improving quantum sensor designs with a new device projected to impact metrology, gravimetry and topside design, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD).
Dr. Dan Parks received the 2020 NSWCDD In-house Laboratory Independent Research (ILIR) Excellence Award for his investigation into what he calls the Canonical Optical Weak Value Amplifier Device (COWVAD).
“It is an honor to receive this award for in-house laboratory independent research in quantum physics,” said Parks who retired prior to the announcement. Parks led the NSWCDD Quantum Technologies Group – chartered to identify or develop militarily useful hyper-capable devices – since 1996 and throughout its investigation into COWVAD.
Parks and his colleagues researched new theories and investigated atomic scale counter-intuitive physical phenomena. “Quantum mechanics has been developed during the last hundred plus years to describe the physical phenomena of the micro-universe,” said Parks. “As it stands today, quantum mechanics is the most successful of all physics theories.”
Parks foresees military applications of COWVAD that range from metrology and gravimetry to topside design.
Metrology is the science of measurement in support of engineering. Gravimetry – the measurement of a gravitational field’s strength – may be used when the magnitude of a gravitational field or the properties of matter responsible for its creation are of interest.
Naval topside design for combat ships is by necessity a search to find innovative ways to meet competing requirements for system functionality within limited space, weight, and cost constraints.