ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — The U.S. Army recently announced the selection of a new senior research scientist for terminal ballistics.
Dr. Scott E. Schoenfeld assumed the position March 17. He previously served as the senior scientist for the Lethality and Protection Sciences Campaign, chief of Armor Mechanics and chief of Impact Physics research with the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory.
Terminal ballistics is a sub-field of ballistics and examines of the behavior and effects of a projectile as it transfers its energy to a target.
Across the Army there are less than 50 senior research scientists, known as STs, who serve as general-officer equivalents, advising leadership on science matters.
Schoenfeld will serve as the “as the Army’s leading expert in the field,” according to the announcement.
Schoenfeld’s experiences include oversight, guidance and execution of “broad theoretical and experimental initiatives to understand the mechanics and physics of weapon-target interactions,” as well as execution and oversight of applied research and development of programs associated with ballistics, terminal effects, mechanics, directed energy and computational science and engineering.
His responsibilities also included leadership of national and international partnerships conducting investigative programs in the areas of mechanics, physics and electro- magnetic response of materials and structures under conditions of blast, impact and penetration and the development of ceramic, energetic, smart, electromagnetic and hybrid protection technologies appropriate for battlefield deployment.
Schoenfeld earned a doctorate in applied mechanics in 1995 from the University of California, San Diego.
“My personal research experiences focus on the mechanics of materials with emphasis on multi-scale theories for single and polycrystalline materials and development of theories into computational algorithms suitable for simulation of impact conditions, penetrator-target interactions, structural failure and high strain-rate deformation of materials,” he said.
Schoenfeld has published several dozen peer-reviewed publications, ARL Technical Reports and Conference proceedings and has been active in American Ceramic Society, The Metals Minerals and Materials Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, The Materials Research Society, United States Association for Computational Mechanics, and the Hypervelocity Impact Society.
He has received numerous honorary awards including the Department of the Army Meritorious Civilian Service Award for cumulative contributions to the development of armor technology, a Department of Army Research and Development Award for Leadership Excellence and two Army Greatest invention awards.
“Dr. Schoenfeld’s expertise and leadership will accelerate the availability of superior, light weight, and agile protection for Army soldiers and vehicles. He will create, grow and capitalize on talent and ideas from across the DOD, industry, academia and other government agencies to accelerate availability of disruptive discoveries that will enable the United States and our partners to compete and win in multi-domain operations,” said Dr. Jeff Zabinski, WMRD director. “Internal to ARL, he will focus on our core competencies in Terminal Ballistics and Sciences for Lethality and Protection.”
“Please join me in congratulating Dr. Schoenfeld on this significant professional accomplishment as he becomes a member of the prestigious senior professional community,” wrote CCDC Commanding General Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins in an email to the workforce.
By CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs
CCDC Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army’s corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win our Nation’s wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.
