The Partnership for Public Service honored 29 federal employees at a recent breakfast on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, as finalists for "Service to America" medals it awards each year.
The "sammies" finalists include Joshua Fairley, a research electrical engineer – and team from the Army Corps of Engineers who led the development of a technology that improved the detection of improvised explosive devices by 75 percent.
Also recognized were a physicist, Dr. Joshua Pomeroy from the National Institute of Standards and Technology who developed technology to better read microchips and further miniaturize data storage; the director of strategic climate projects at the EPA, Dr. Stephen Anderson, for playing a key role in phasing out 95 percent of the world’s ozone-depleting substances and for his work on climate change; and trial attorney Mark Pletcher from the Justice Department’s antitrust division for efforts to stop bid-rigging, fraud and corruption involving officials and defense contractors in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
Winners are to be announced in September.