RUTHERFORD HIGH SCHOOL ANNOUNCES THE SELECTION OF
LAURA BATTISTA
US ARMY PRODUCT DIRECTOR
CLASS OF 1990
AS THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2019 DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE AWARD
Ms. Laura Battista graduated from Rutherford High School in 1990. She graduated from New Jersey Institute of Technology with a Bachelor and Master’s Degree.
Working for over twenty years as an engineer for the US Army at the Picatinny Arsenal, Ms. Battista currently manages weapon systems for the Army including .50 caliber machine guns and chain guns. She is also directly responsible for developing, testing, training and fielding soldiers with new, safer systems and providing increased capabilities needed to maintain superiority and ensure success on the battlefield.
Ms. Battista holds an Army patent (patent number 7,244,500) on a Smart Coatings System which is a next generation of coatings able to sense, analyze, and react to their surrounding in real-time. She received the New Jersey Research and Development Council’s Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for this patent.
Ms. Battista currently lives in Sparta, NJ with her husband, Vincent Harris. She also has two children, Luke (age 19) and Lorelai (age 5). Her mother, Nancy Battista, and two sisters, Silvia Torino and Adriana Coppola, live in Rutherford with their families. Her brother, Jerry Battista, and family live in Bloomingdale, NJ.