Military professor honored by WPI Alumni Association

WORCESTER, Mass. — Cmdr. Joe Santos, a 1995 graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), received the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement for his impressive career in the U.S. Navy.

A career submariner, Santos first enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear machinist mate and was later selected into the Navy ROTC program. At WPI he earned his bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in mechanical/nuclear engineering and then re-entered the nuclear Navy and submarine force as a commissioned officer.

At sea, his operational submarine tours include assignments in the USS Tinosa, USS Miami, USS Virginia and USS Nevada. During these tours Santos conducted deployments to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, South America, Pacific and Arabian Gulf, including combat operations in support of operations in Kosovo and Iraq. 

Ashore he has served as a nuclear engineering instructor, a submarine strike officer during the initial stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom and as a member of the Joint Staff, J-3, Deputy Directorate for Global Operations. 

Recently, Santos was a member of the Chief of Naval Operation’s staff in the strategy branch of OPNAV NOOX, where he was part of the Innovation and Concepts Team working to identify, develop and implement innovative operational and strategic concepts to fill Navy warfighting gaps.

Santos earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies in from the Naval War College in 2010. As a Gravely Scholar he researched “Undersea Warfare Concepts of Operation in Anti-Access/Area Denied Environments.” 

Most recently he completed training and certification as a provincial reconstruction team commander in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He is also a military professor in national security affairs, teaching a graduate level course to senior U.S. and international military and various government agency civilian personnel.

The Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement is presented by the WPI Alumni Association to WPI alumni who have demonstrated solid professional advancement in their chosen fields. The award is named in honor of Ichabod Washburn, a leading Worcester industrialist and one of the founders of WPI who contributed much to the character of the university. He offered to build a model manufacturing facility on the WPI campus to provide the practical experience that would augment classroom instruction. His vision led to the wedding of theory and practice, which remains the cornerstone of WPI’s project-based approach to engineering and science education today.