Life after a leap of faith
Ironically, the same year that George Akst was offered a coveted tenure-track professor position, he decided that he was meant to pursue a new calling that resonated more deeply with him. Akst left academia and began a career in military operations research.
Today, Akst (MS, ’72; PhD, ’74; mathematics) serves as the director of the Operations Analysis Directorate for the U.S. Marine Corps, where he performs studies and analysis to help the Marine Corps make sound policy decisions.
“While we are located in one particular unit, Marine Corps Combat Development and Integration Department, we support the entire Marine Corps,” Akst said. “Anybody across the Marine Corps, if they have an analytical question, can come to us and if we think that the question is a high priority one and amenable to analysis, then we will help them.”
Akst has performed research and analysis for several major operations including Desert Storm. He’s analyzed a wide variety of questions, including some high-profile ones, such as whether women should be permitted in ground combat arms and infantry units. Following the analysis and recommendations from senior leaders, the Marine Corps opened the door to women in all military units for the first time in history.
“We did a lot of quantitative analysis to address the ability of females to succeed in these various combat arms and professions,” Akst said, "and found that while female typically lacked the upper body strength of males, some could perform the tasks needed for combat arms. Further, their different perspectives measurably enhanced decision-making skills to certain types of problem solving.”
Analysis for the Marine Corps wasn’t always in Akst’s career plans. From 1970 to 1978, he served in the Corps of Engineers in the Army Reserve, and graduated from the Engineer Officer Basic Course at Fort Belvoir in 1972. In 1974, while in the Reserves, Akst earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Illinois.
Choosing to attend Illinois was quite a change for Akst.
“I grew up in New York City and went to (undergrad) in New York City and I thought after graduating college it was probably time to leave,” Akst said. “Illinois had a very good reputation.”
During his time at Illinois, Akst was very involved in the scuba diving club, which he said was a fairly prominent group on campus during his time here despite the apparent lack of water. They would drive to scuba dive in Lake Kickapoo, near Danville, Illinois.
Each year, the club would also take trips to the Bahamas for a week to go diving. Akst met his wife, Barbara, on a charter scuba diving trip, while he was working as part of the boat’s crew.
“She came aboard. I was crew and she was a paying passenger and we met and hit it off,” Akst recalled. “The captain and his wife saw that, and the captain said, ‘Hey, do both of you guys want to stay on? Barbara can help in the kitchen and you can pull up the anchor and do the things you are doing.’ And, so we both stayed on for a third week. That was 43 years ago.”
After graduating from Illinois, he went on to become a professor of mathematics at New Mexico State University from 1974 to 1976. He took another job at California State University at San Bernardino from 1976 to 1979. It was during this time that Akst felt the need to try something different and, to some, maybe even a little bit unexpected, even though he received a tenure-track offer to teach math at Morehead State University.
In 1979, Akst joined the Center for Naval Analyses, a nonprofit organization that serves the U.S. Department of the Navy, which began his career in operations and research. Since that time he has held various other positions and worked on several important projects including Cost and Operational Effectiveness Analyses on Sea-Based Tactical Ballistic Missile Defense, Tomahawk Baseline Improvement Program, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle.
He directed analyses of Marine Corps Ground Operations in Desert Storm, and led all of CNA’s efforts in 1996-1997 to support both the Navy and Marine Corps in the Quadrennial Defense Review, which is a study conducted every four years by the United States Department of Defense. He also served as the scientific analyst to Headquarters, Marine Corps, which is the headquarters staff of the Marine Corps, located in the Pentagon, and as the field representative to the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, which is the headquarters for all Marine forces in the Pacific.
In 1998, he became a federal civil servant for the Marine Corps at Quantico, Virginia. He started as the deputy director of the Operations Analysis Directorate, and was ultimately promoted into the senior ranks of government as the director. Akst said his team works on a broad variety of questions ranging anywhere from determining appropriate bonuses for recruits to analyzing combat action. They look at the relationships between cost and effectiveness and make recommendations based on their findings.
Akst loves that his job allows him to work on so many different projects. No two days are ever the same, he said, and he has no regrets about his career change 40 years ago. Sometimes, he said, a leap of faith is necessary to get on the path you were meant to pursue.
