Dr. John Sokolowski John Sokolowski, Executive Director at VMASC, was a submarine skipper before he took the top job in the modeling and simulation division of the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM).  Before retiring from the Navy in 2001, he began a Ph.D. program in engineering management at ODU, and soon after retirement, he became a research scientist at VMASC.  Sokolowski eventually shifted his Ph.D. focus at ODU to modeling and simulation engineering, and in 2003, became the first person in the world to be granted a Doctorate in that field. As VMASC's Director of research until 2009, Sokolowski either led, or had significant involvement, in a dozen or so research projects at any one time. Under his leadership, the scope of research at VMASC has vastly expanded.