JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Dr. Bertram Jon Klauenberg, a senior research physiologist with the 711th Human Performance Wing’s Radio Frequency Bioeffects Branch at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston recently won the prestigious Defense Standardization Program Achievement Award for 2016, one of only a handful of recipients throughout the Department of Defense.
The presentation took place during a Pentagon ceremony presided over by Kristin Baldwin, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering.
Each year, one of award winners is singled out for being “best-of-the-best” and is also presented with the distinguished achievement award. This year, it was Klauenberg, who received a check for $5,000.
Klauenberg’s work led to the development of standards for protecting military personnel from the potentially harmful effects of exposure to electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields.
The 711th Human Performance Wing is an Air Force Materiel Command organization, established under the Air Force Research Laboratory, with its headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
“The award is special as it recognizes the importance of standardization in ensuring safety and occupational health for our personnel who work in electromagnetic environments, which have become complex and virtually ubiquitous,” Klauenberg said. “These standards transition scientific knowledge are linchpins enabling safe fielding of new technologies and are essential to multinational interoperability.”
The awards honor personnel and organizations from military departments and defense agencies for outstanding performance in the implementation of the Defense Standardization Program, with recipients making improvements in technical performance to enhance safety for DOD personnel and avoid billions of dollars in costs.
“He has put his heart and soul into national, DOD, and NATO radio frequency safety standards development over the years,” said Dr. Gordon Hengst, Radio Frequency Bioeffects Branch chief. “He has ensured the standards put in play for the DOD and NATO are safe and make sense for the unique military environments our military operate in.”
Klauenberg worked with the NATO Medical Board, helping to transfer a NATO standardization agreement to the civil sector, then adopt it into NATO for alliance use.
He also led the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety in developing the new civil standard; referred to as IEEE-C95.1-2345. By transferring it to the civil sector, it gives the standard a wider base of potential adopting entities, not just the military.
Since it is now a civil standard adopted by NATO, it can be used by industry and military alike. The standard sets internationally agreed-upon limits for personnel exposure to electromagnetic field emissions emanating from radars, communications equipment, navigational aids and directed-energy weapons.