VITTORIO RICCI, chief technology officer for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, won the 2019 National Defense Industrial Association Vice Admiral Charles B. Martell-David Bushnell Award. The award honors individuals who have made contributions in the field of anti-submarine warfare and/or undersea warfare technology. Ricci has worked at NUWC for 35 years, serving as CTO from 2015-2019 and implementing the division’s overall strategy on science and technology matters.
What was your reaction to winning the 2019 National Defense Industrial Association Vice Admiral Charles B. Martell-David Bushnell Award? At first, I thought the email was to someone else and I was a courtesy copy as the chief technology officer. Then I read it and was in a bit of disbelief. This is a huge award in our broader undersea community. Past recipients are giants in our field, so to even be mentioned with those who came before me is truly an honor. It made me reflect on my career and all the truly great people I was fortunate enough to have worked with across government, industry and academia, including our international partners.
What have you been most proud of accomplishing during your tenure? I have been privileged to have worked on so many great programs over the years, including Tomahawk, Spartan, Zumwalt-class destroyers, and various other surface ship, submarine and distributed sensor programs. In the latter part of my career, I spent time on building new programs and new capabilities and, of course, new teams. Through it all, the one constant has been the people and the relationships I have maintained throughout the years. I think, or at least I hope, I was able to be a positive force and a positive influence on the people I have met and worked with.
How has the coronavirus impacted you personally and professionally? We are finding new ways to work, but new relationships take time to build trust and understanding. You can’t put a price on the interpersonal information exchange that happens in person. From a personal perspective, it has been a bit more of an adjustment. We are social creatures, so limited contact is tough. We had to postpone my daughter’s wedding. She graduated from Brown [University] medical, so we missed all the pomp and circumstance that goes with that. And my son also came home from New York. So, on the bright side, the family has all been together.
What do you hope to convey to the next generation of technological employees at NUWC, and how important is mentorship? Mentorship is incredibly important and comes in many forms. Employees should find mentors that challenge them to be better and encourage reaching limits beyond their known capacity. One piece of advice: Don’t say no to yourself. Be really good at what you do and make it hard for someone else to say no to you. Success is really about hard work over long, sustained periods of time. Patience and persistence coupled with a positive attitude go a long way.
