Capt. Eric R. Welsh relieved Capt. Dennis J. Faix as commanding officer of the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) during a change of command ceremony on the morning of July 28th. Capt. William M. Denniston, Presiding Official and Commander of Naval Medical Research Command, along with honored guest speaker Capt. (Ret.) Mark S. Riddle, were present as part of the official party to this time-honored event.

Capt. Faix assumed command May 2021 amid COVID-19 protection protocols. During his time at NHRC as Commanding Officer, Faix led the research staff to some of the command’s biggest accomplishments to date. Under Capt. Faix’s leadership, NHRC launched 28 new studies, processed more than 400 authored works, generated the most human research protocols in the command’s history, and won several of the highest achievement awards at the Department of Defense’s premier scientific meeting, Military Health System Research Symposium.



The largest and longest running health study of military personnel, the Millennium Cohort Study, marked its 20-year anniversary, and added a new component, The Study Of Adolescent Resilience (SOAR). NHRC’s Warfighter Department concluded its Marksmanship and Tactical Research Study, impacting doctrine-level changes to Marine infantry marksmanship, and a collaborative team of scientists from both the Operational Infectious Diseases and Operational Readiness and Health Directorates deployed with the USNS Comfort to explore if wearable devices could detect changes in health status that may indicate the early presence of illness.

“The mission of NHRC, the work that the staff does every day to better the life and performance of the warfighter, veterans, and their families is truly remarkable. I have all the confidence that our staff will continue to execute at the highest professional levels and bring the Navy Medicine R&D enterprise to better places. Respectfully, thank you all,” remarked Faix.

NHRC’s arriving commanding officer Capt. Welsh comes to NHRC from having charge of Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit Five (NEPMU-5), San Diego. Welsh is a native of Utah and holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.



After working as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, he was commissioned in 2000 as a lieutenant in the Biochemistry/Toxicology Community of the Medical Service Corps of the U.S. Navy.

In December 2002, he was transferred to the Chemistry Department at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, where he taught courses in chemistry and materials science. He was nominated for three teaching awards and was honored as the best military instructor of the year 2004-2005.

In June 2006, he was transferred to the Navy Drug Screening Laboratory in Great Lakes, IL, where he served two distinguished tours: one as the Executive Officer and one as the Commanding Officer. In July 2012, he reported as the Director for Laboratory Services and Navy Drug Testing Program Manager at Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, Portsmouth, VA. Then in 2017, Welsh went to work at the Pentagon as the Director of the Office of Drug Demand Reduction. In 2021, Capt. Welsh assumed charge of NEPMU-5 in San Diego, CA. Welsh assumes NHRC having authored 13 publications, multiple abstracts, and holds three patents.



“I know the responsibility is immense and I take the utmost pride in becoming NHRC’s next commanding officer. I look forward to all our challenges and successes,” said Welsh.

NHRC’s mission is to optimize the operational readiness and health of our armed forces and families by conducting research, development, testing, and evaluation informing Department of Defense policy. NHRC supports military mission readiness with research and development that delivers high-value, high-impact solutions to the health and readiness challenges our military population faces on the battlefield, at sea, on foreign shores and at home. NHRC’s team of distinguished scientists and researchers consists of active duty service members, federal civil service employees and contractors, whose expertise includes physiology, microbiology, psychology, operations research and data science, epidemiology, and biomedical engineering.