The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has announced that Dr. Merrill
Skolnik is the first recipient of its new Dennis J. Picard
Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications. Dr. Skolnik served
as Superintendent of the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL's)
Radar Division from 1965 until his retirement in 1996. The citation
for the medal states that he is recognized "For outstanding
leadership of Navy radar research, authorship of widely used
books on radar, and personal contributions to the advancement
of radar technologies and systems." He will receive his
award at a ceremony on June 24, to be held at Vancouver, BC,
Canada, during the 2000 IEEE Honors Ceremony.
The IEEE Picard award is sponsored
by the Raytheon Company, and is named for the chairman and chief
executive officer of the Raytheon Company, Mr. Dennis J.
Picard.
Among the many new radar technology
developments accomplished by NRL's Radar Division under Dr. Skolnik's
supervision was the first successful development of HF over-the-horizon
radar for the U.S. Navy and Air Force; new concepts for shipboard
air-surveillance radar including the ECCM-capable radar called
"Senrad;" the introduction of the AN/SPS-49 air-surveillance
radar into the fleet;
practical counter-stealth techniques for ship-air defense; improvements
in combat identification including identification friend or foe
(IFF), the pioneering application of inverse synthetic aperture
radar (SAR) used in naval aircraft for ship recognition at long
range, and the use of jet engine modulation for aircraft recognition;
radar cross section prediction and the first multi-frequency
dynamic radar cross section ships; spaceborne radar concepts
for world-wide ocean surveillance; low probability of intercept
radar; high resolution radar for periscope detection; adaptive
processing that made practical the sidelobe canceler for countering
hostile jamming signals and which led to its application to airborne
early warning (AEW) radar in the form of space-time adaptive
processing; new ship self-defense radar system concepts and technology;
and increased understanding of the nature of the radar echo from
the sea.
Dr. Skolnik is known to the world-wide
radar community as the author of the highly popular text Introduction
to Radar Systems and as editor of the Radar Handbook. Before
joining NRL he was with the Institute for Defense Analysis, Research
Division of Electronic Communication Inc., MIT Lincoln Laboratory,
Sylvania Boston Engineering Laboratory, and the Johns Hopkins
Radiation Laboratory. In addition to radar, he was involved in
these organizations with ballistic missile defense, electronic
warfare, proximity fuzes, and phased array radar including self-focusing
array antennas.
In addition to the Picard Medal,
Dr. Solnik has received the IEEE Harry Diamond Award, the IEEE
Centennial Medal, and the IEEE Fellow Award. He has served as
editor of the Proceedings of the IEEE and as a member and former
chairman of the IEEE Radar Systems Panel. He received the Johns
Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award and is a member of the Johns
Hopkins Society of Scholars. Dr. Skolnik also received the Institute
of Electronic and Radio Engineers (UK) Heinrich Hertz Premium
and the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award. In 1986, he
was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
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