Air Force Funded Scientist Receives Technical Achievement Award

  • Published
  • By Maria Callier (Quantech)
  • AFOSR Public Affairs
ARLINGTON, Va --  A scientist in Missouri, funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research here, recently received the 2006 Technical Achievement Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Signal Processing Society.

Dr. Arye Nehorai, chairman and professor of the department of electrical and systems engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, was selected for his contributions to radio sensing with applications to radar, sonar, biomedicine and the environment. The nomination came from the IEEE's Signal Processing Society's Technical Committee on Sensor Array and Multichannel Processing.

The award honors a person who, over a period of years, has made outstanding technical contributions to theory and/or practice in technical areas within the scope of the Society, as demonstrated by publications, patents, or recognized impact on the field. Dr. Nehorai's prize is $1,500, a plaque and a certificate which he will receive at the society's awards ceremonies, normally held during the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing in April in Honolulu.

"I derived fundamental results on the performance of statistical sensor array processing, which have been used by many other researchers. We received about 500 citations for one of these papers. I also pioneered the use of vector sensors, which significantly improve the accuracy of finding sources of waves and targets by radar systems. AFOSR support and the confidence of the sponsors in my work over the years have been critical to my success in obtaining important results and recognitions," said Dr. Nehorai.

Dr. Nehorai said he was surprised when he learned he'd been selected for the honor.

"The first thing I did was to tell my wife," said Dr. Nehorai. "The technical achievement award is the highest recognition for contributions within the scope of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. This society has more than 20,000 members worldwide, and there are only two recipients every year. It was the first time that I was nominated."

Dr. Jon Sjogren, sensing, surveillance and navigation'program manager at AFOSR, has overseen much of Dr. Nehorai's research, beginning in 1989.

"Professor Nehorai is an asset to AFOSR programs," said Dr. Sjogren. "He's helping create a new area of radio sensing based on controlled signals, timing and locations. One main item that we funded was his concept of vector electric-magnetic," or detection that occurs when a single sensor assumes the beam-forming role of multiple sensors.

Currently, Dr. Nehorai is leading a MURI (Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative) grant supported by DoD through AFOSR entitled, "Adaptive Waveform Design for Full Spectral Dominance." The project involves research on how to increase radar systems' resolution, detection, accuracy, and communication systems capacity.

AFOSR accomplishes its mission by investing in basic research efforts for the Air Force in relevant scientific areas like the ones that Dr. Nehorai has been investigating. Central to AFOSR's strategy is the transfer of the fruits of basic research to industry, the supplier of Air Force acquisitions; to the academic community which can lead the way to still more accomplishment; and to the other directorates of AFRL that carry the responsibility for applied and development research leading to acquisition.