Steve Ramberg, Ph.D.
Chief of Naval Research Chair
Distinguished Research Fellow

Dr. Steve Ramberg is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University (NDU) on assignment from the Applied Research Laboratory of Penn State University. At NDU he occupies the Chief of Naval Research Chair where he provides analysis and advice on S&T topics and policies, primarily in areas of naval relevance. He also regularly participates in studies, panels and lectures for NDU, for the National Academy, for the National Ocean Council via ORRAP and for others. During his career, he served as a Fellow and as Vice President for Arete Associates during 2007 to 2010; as the Director of the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) in LaSpezia, Italy from 2003 to 2007; and as Director and Chief Scientist for ONR during 2001-2003 after joining ONR in 1988. His career at ONR also involved oversight of ocean, atmosphere and space programs in basic research through applied programs (6.1-6.3) including the Navy-owned research vessels in the academic fleet as well as inaugurating the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP) across 12 federal agencies. At the NURC, he focused on maritime, mostly undersea, research programs while advising NATO in a number of informal and formal settings including research and technology strategies, coordination of programs among the 26 NATO Nations as well as transformation of NATO capabilities. In this capacity he was frequently called upon to give keynote addresses at international gatherings on topics ranging from status and trends in undersea research to issues of marine mammal risk reduction together with opportunities for port and harbor security research and maritime archaeology. Earlier, he worked at the Naval Research Laboratory where he published over 60 unclassified papers in the archival literature on fluid dynamics of bluff bodies, nonlinear ocean waves, stratified wakes, turbulence near a free surface and related remote sensing topics.