SAN DIEGO – Research physiologist, Dr. Doug Jones and cognitive scientist, Dr. Tim Dunn of the Naval Health Research Center’s warfighter performance department, together with the NHRC public affairs team, have been awarded the 2025 MHSRS Warfighter Medical Research Public Communications Award.

This award is presented to recognize those who have made a major contribution to broadening the general public's awareness of Department of Defense-sponsored military medical research that impacts the warfighter through any aspect of public communications.
Entries are judged on scientific accuracy, initiative, originality, clarity of interpretation and value in fostering a better understanding of warfighter-related medical research by non-science audiences.


During exercise Arctic Edge 2024, a joint operation field training exercise that focused on operations in extreme cold weather, Jones and Dunn collaborated on a cold weather technology project, in which they were sought out by producers of National Public Radio’s (NPR) Marketplace podcast. Upon NPR’s invitation to NHRC’s warfighter laboratory, they recorded a special episode on the challenges warfighters face operating in extreme weather environments, and the work military scientists are doing to improve their readiness and lethality to meet those challenges.

NPR’s Marketplace season 6 episode 1, “The Changing Threat” was released on Sept. 11, 2024, and was broadcast on over 800 public radio stations and made available as a podcast with 11 million weekly listeners.

“The hard work that both Drs. Dunn and Jones do in and out of the lab speaks volumes about the dedication and passion they each have to their research. Both these men are the type of scientists who take the lead and will actually immerse themselves into the ice ponds to ensure accurate work. We at NHRC are very proud of their accomplishments,” said Capt. Kellie McMullen, commanding officer, NHRC.

MHSRS is a an annual four-day educational symposium that draws approximately 4,000 attendees which provides a collaborative setting for the exchange of information between military providers with deployment experience, research and academic scientists, international partners, and industry on research and related health care initiatives.

NHRC, part of Navy Medicine Research & Development, supports Navy, Marine Corps and joint U.S. warfighter readiness and lethality with research and development that delivers high-value, high-impact solutions to the health challenges U.S. military population faces on the battlefield, at-sea, home and abroad.