First DSTO Chair of Microwave Radar appointed

Tuesday, 16 December 2003

The University of Adelaide and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) today announced that Professor Shane Cloude has been appointed the inaugural DSTO Chair of Microwave Radar in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the university.

Professor Cloude offers a unique combination of academic and consultancy experience that will be relevant to a wide range of defence applications. He will assume his role on 1 July 2004.

In 1981 he received his BSc in Electronics from the University of Dundee and in 1987 his PhD in Engineering from the University of Birmingham. He has since acquired more than 15 years of experience in research and teaching in applied electromagnetics, radar signal processing and microwave remote sensing. He has published over 100 technical papers and books and been awarded distinguished Fellowships from both the IEEE in the USA and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.

Professor Cloude has also obtained experience in a diverse range of tertiary education systems, through appointments at universities in Scotland, England, France and Spain. For the past three years, he has been running a small start-up company, AEL Consultants, working for the UK defence sector and international space agencies developing new radar systems and algorithms for advanced surveillance and remote sensing applications.

His main area of research has been in the development of new multi- parameter radar techniques, especially those employing combinations of polarimetry and interferometry. He was among the first to show that polarimetric interferometry could be used for quantitative vegetation structure mapping. This new technology has important implications for the future use of radar in global remote sensing applications, for example in estimating global forest biomass for input into climate change predictions.

He plans to work closely with DSTO developing new advanced multi- parameter radar systems and helping them work toward an enhanced imaging and surveillance capability for Australian defence and security.

In announcing the appointment, Dr D (Nanda) Nandagopal, DSTO's Director of Systems Sciences Laboratory, said Professor Cloude had a unique combination of academic and consultancy experience, which would be relevant to a wide range of defence applications.

"He is well equipped to become Director of the Centre of Expertise of Microwave Radar being established as a major strategic initiative of DSTO's Systems Sciences Laboratory. The aim is to reinvigorate the microwave radar capability with DSTO and defence," Dr Nandagopal said.

Professor Cloude is the first chair appointed under funding by DSTO, which supports two chairs at the University of Adelaide with relevance to defence science and technology. DSTO will provide $2 million of funding over five years to fund both chairs.

Contact Details