Naval Postgraduate School - History

History

On 9 June 1909, Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer signed General Order No. 27, establishing a school of marine engineering at Annapolis, Maryland.

On 31 October 1912, Meyer signed Navy General Order No. 233, which renamed the school the Postgraduate Department of the United States Naval Academy. The order established courses of study in ordnance and gunnery, electrical engineering, radio telegraphy, naval construction, and civil engineering and continued the program in marine engineering.

During World War II, Fleet Admiral Ernest King, chief of naval operations and commander-in-chief of both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, established a commission to review the role of graduate education in the Navy. In 1945, Congress passed legislation to make the school a fully accredited, degree-granting graduate institution. Two years later, Congress adopted legislation authorizing the purchase of an independent campus for the school.

A post-war review team, which had examined 25 sites nationwide, had recommended the old Hotel Del Monte in Monterey as a new home for the Postgraduate School. During WWII, the Navy had leased the facilities, first for a Pre-Flight Training School, then for part of the Electronics Training Program. Negotiations with the Del Monte Properties Company led to the purchase of the hotel and 627 acres (2.5 kmĀ²) of surrounding land for $2.13 million.

In December 1951, the Postgraduate School moved to Monterey. Today, the school has over 40 programs of study including highly regarded M.S and PhD programs in electrical and computer engineering (NRC Ranking 68,), mechanical and astronautical engineering (NRC Ranking 30), systems engineering (ABET accredited ), space systems and satellite engineering, physics, oceanography (NRC Ranking 22), meteorology, applied mathematics, computer science (NRC Ranking 83), operations research, business and public policy (AACSB and NASPAA accredited, US News ranking 45), international relations, and other disciplines, all with an emphasis on military applications.

The Space Systems Academic Group of the school has graduated thirty-three astronauts, more than any other graduate school in the country. the school is home to the Center for Information Systems Security Studies and Research (CISR) and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS). CISR is America's foremost center for defense-related research and education in Information Assurance (IA), Inherently Trustworthy Systems (ITC), and defensive information warfare; and CHDS provides the first homeland security master's degree in the United States.

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