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Juan A. Pérez receives Bronze Order of the de Fleury Medal

Published Jan. 24, 2008

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Juan A. Pérez recently received the Bronze Order of the de Fleury Medal from the Army Engineer Association on behalf of the Engineer Regiment. He was recognized for superior leadership and career contributions to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).

. - Juan A. Pérez recently received the Bronze Order of the de Fleury Medal from the Army Engineer Association on behalf of the Engineer Regiment. He was recognized for superior leadership and career contributions to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).

The de Fleury Medal was established during the early years of the Corps of Engineers to honor individuals who have provided significant contributions to Army engineering. It is named for French engineer Francois Louis Tesseidre de Fleury who volunteered to fight with the American Army in the American Revolution. For his bravery and courage under fire in the battle of Stony Point, N.Y., in 1779, the Continental Congress praised his valor and awarded a medal struck in his honor Oct. 1, 1779.

Pérez is the chief of the Topography, Imagery and Geospatial Systems Division at ERDC’s Topographic Engineering Center (TEC), Alexandria, Va. The division develops, fields and sustains Army and Joint Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capabilities including the Digital Topographic Support System, the Tactical Exploitation System and the Joint Advanced Deep Operations Coordination System. In addition, Pérez oversees technology integration and demonstration projects for a variety of Department of Defense (DOD) customers. Prior to serving in this capacity, Pérez served as director for modeling and simulation (M&S) for the Joint Precision Strike Demonstration (JPSD) Project Office. At the JPSD Project Office, he assisted the director in the execution of Joint Capabilities/Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (J/ACTDs) and related technology integration and evaluation projects to support Combatant Commands’ requirements. In addition, he served as acting director and acting deputy director, JPSD for approximately six months. Pérez was also on assignment with the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office serving as program manager for the Integrated Natural Environment (INE) program. The INE program provided a focal point for DOD activities to integrate air, space, ocean and terrain M&S requirements, standards and capabilities including developing a family of international standards for environmental representation (SEDRIS), the Master Environmental Library and the Environmental Scenario Generation.

From 1994 to 1996, Pérez served as the technical manager for the Synthetic Environment Project Office, a component of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Synthetic Environment (SE) program that contributed to the Synthetic Theater of War ACTD. The SE program integrated and demonstrated the first instantiation of physics-based dynamic weather and dynamic terrain capabilities in distributed simulations while improving significantly the technology to build high-resolution terrain data bases for M&S.

Pérez also served as chief of the Force Projection Branch and the Standards Branch and principal investigator for research and development projects at TEC’s predecessor the U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories. From 1981 to 1982, he was an instructor and researcher at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez where he taught courses in surveying, geodesy, civil engineering and general engineering.

Pérez received the Superior Civilian Service Award in 2007 and the TEC Director’s Leadership Award in 2004. He is a registered land surveyor in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and is certified DOD Acquisition Level III in Science and Technology Management. He earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, and a master’s in Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry from The Ohio State University. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honor Society and the Army Engineer Association. He has authored or coauthor articles on topics ranging from remote sensing to M&S terrain to baseball.

The ERDC is the premier research and development facility for the Corps of Engineers. It consists of seven laboratories at four geographical sites, with more than 2,000 employees, $1.2 billion in facilities, and an annual research program approaching $700 million. It conducts research in both military and civil works mission areas for the Department of Defense and the nation. TEC’s mission is to provide the warfighter with a superior knowledge of the battlefield and to support the nation's civil and environmental initiatives. This mission is accomplished through research, development, and the application of expertise in the topographic and related sciences.


Release no. 08-009