Oliver Barham was employed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division (NSWC IHEODTD) in Indian Head, Maryland when he decided to advance his career by pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. Oliver applied to the SMART Program and was selected by his DoD facility, NSWC IHEODTD, to pursue his degree at the University of Maryland, College Park. With the SMART Program, Oliver was able to pursue school full-time, instead of working part-time, which allowed him to dedicate more time to his academic pursue and get the most out of his education. During his service commitment, Oliver worked closely with senior scientist, Dr. Carl Gotzmer. He was deeply impacted by the mentorship and was introduced to the controversial field of cold fusion. Together, the pair are attempting to make headway on new experiments that advance previous research. Oliver said of his mentor, “he taught me the correct way to approach and interact with sponsors, the most important questions we should answer, and most importantly displays a child-like curiosity and enthusiasm that is infectious.”
Oliver continues to advance in his field and leadership roles. In a recent project with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), he led a team of 20 scientists and engineers across eight federal, academic, and private institutions. He believes that this would not have been possible without the scientific and leadership training received through his Ph.D. program that was sponsored by SMART.
Though Oliver has completed his service commitment to the SMART Program and his sponsoring facility, he continues to work for NSWC IHEODTD. Here, he says he loves “working at the edge of what is possible and seeing if we can come up with something new and useful to the country.”
Learn more about some of Oliver’s interesting work here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/cold-fusion-or-low-energy-nuclear-reactions-us-navy-researchers-reopen-case
