Radar Technology Pioneer Merrill Skolnik Dies at 94

Merrill Skolnik

First recipient of the IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal

Life Fellow, 94; died 27 January

Skolnik served as superintendent of the radar division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years. While there, he made significant contributions including helping to develop high-frequency, over-the-horizon radar; a system that can identify friend or foe during combat; and high-resolution radar techniques.

For his work in the field, he was named the first recipient of the IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications, in 2000. Picard was chief executive of Raytheon and helped the company become a leader in tactical missile systems.

Skolnik began his career in 1955 at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. While there, he taught a course on radar at Northeastern University, in Boston. The course was the basis for his 1962 book Introduction to Radar Systems.

He left MIT in 1959 to join Electronic Communications, now part of Raytheon. There he gained experience working on antennas, electronic warfare, and phased arrays.

He then joined the Institute for Defense Analyses, in Alexandria, Va. It provides technical advice to the U.S. Defense Department, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and other government entities. While there, he did pioneering work on thinned arrays and self-phasing array antennas. He also contributed to the fields of bistatic radars and electronic countermeasures.

In 1965 he became superintendent of the radar division at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He and his staff developed concepts for wideband shipboard air-surveillance radar with reduced susceptibility to electronic countermeasures; self-defense radar; and space-borne radar for detecting ships.

He continued to work as a consultant for the lab after he retired in 1996.

In 1944 Skolnik joined the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, one of IEEE’s predecessor societies. He served on the Proceedings of the IEEE editorial board in the late 1980s.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as a Ph.D. in engineering from Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore.

Wallace “Wally” Behnke

Director emeritus of the IEEE Foundation

Life Fellow, 96; died 11 January

Behnke spent his entire career at Commonwealth Edison in Chicago. He retired in 1989 as vice chairman of the utility.

He was an active IEEE volunteer and held several leadership positions. He served as the 1988 president of the IEEE Power & Energy Society. He was the 1990–1991 Division VII director, and he directed the IEEE Foundation from 1999 to 2004.

Behnke served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the Korean War before joining Commonwealth Edison. During his tenure at the company, he oversaw the design and construction of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor project, a sodium-cooled nuclear facility in Tennessee.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1945 from Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill.

David John Kemp

1998 president of IEEE Canada

Life senior member, 78; died 5 January

Kemp worked for 35 years at the Manitoba Telephone System in Canada.

An active IEEE volunteer, he served in several leadership positions including as 1998 president of IEEE Canada and director of Region 7. He was IEEE secretary in 2000.

He was an IEEE member for nearly 60 years. He helped establish an IEEE student branch at Red River College, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He went on to hold several officer positions in the IEEE Winnipeg Section. He helped launch the IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade program, now IEEE Young Professionals.

Kemp served on numerous IEEE boards and committees including the IEEE Service Awards Committee, the IEEE History Committee, the IEEE Life Members Committee, and the IEEE Canadian Foundation.

After he retired as director of information technology at MTS, he was the business manager of industrial applications at the University of Manitoba’s Microelectronics Center, in Winnipeg. He also worked as a consultant in Europe.

He served on the boards of the Electronics Industry Association of Manitoba and the Canadian Institute of Management.

Kemp earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering technology from the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology, in Winnipeg.

Michel Poloujadoff

Recipient of the 1991 IEEE Nikola Tesla Award

Fellow, 89; died 13 December

Poloujadoff’s academic career spanned almost 40 years. His research focused on electrical machines, power electronics, and electrical lines.

He was an active volunteer in the IEEE France Section, and in 2004 he helped launch its IEEE Life Members Affinity Group.

He joined Grenoble University (now Université Grenoble Alpes) in France in 1961 as a professor of electrical engineering. He was a visiting professor in 1983 at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ont., Canada. After returning to France, he became a professor of electrical engineering at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (now Sorbonne University), in Paris. He taught at the university until he retired in 2000.

Poloujadoff was a doctoral research advisor and mentored about 50 students during his career. He helped establish electrical engineering graduate programs in Egypt, France, and Tunisia.

He developed approaches for modeling squirrel-cage rotors—the rotating cylinder of steel laminations in induction motors—including harmonic magnetic fields and inter-bar currents. In 1965 he began conducting research on the numerical solution of electromagnetic field equations and later defined the basis of the first entirely 3D analysis of large transformers.

Poloujadoff authored five textbooks.

He served as chair of the France Section’s IEEE Life Members Affinity Group from 2004 to 2016. He was a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Power & Energy Society and the IEEE Industry Applications Society.

After helping to found the International Conference on Electrical Machines in 1974, he served on ICEM’s steering committee from 1974 to 2000.

He received several honors including the 2012 ICEM Arthur Ellison Achievement Award, the 1994 IEEE Lamme Medal, and the 1991 IEEE Nikola Tesla Award.

Poloujadoff earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1955 from Supélec (now part of CentraleSupélec) in Paris. He received a master’s degree in computer science from Harvard. After returning to France, he earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1960 from the Université de Paris.

Edward F. Weingart

Vice president of engineering at AT&T

Life senior member, 86; died 26 November

During his career, Weingart worked at New York Telephone and Bell Atlantic (both now are part of Verizon) as well as AT&T. He retired in 1994 as AT&T’s vice president of engineering.

He was a pioneer in the wireless communications industry and helped launch cellular networks that are still used today. He holds several U.S. patents.

Weingart was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

Weingart’s family describes him as giving and community-minded. He was a member of several organizations including the Photographic Society of America, the Classic Car Club of America, and the Radio Club of America.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the New York University Tandon School of Engineering).

Antony Kenneth Spilman

Director at Arm

Member, 56; died 4 November

Spilman worked for several international technology companies in senior management positions. He was director of project management of open-source software at Arm, in England, when he died.

His family says he “always believed in building a strong team around him through supporting younger team members’ development.”

In his free time, Spilman enjoyed sailing, gardening, and skiing.

He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Southampton, in England, and a master’s degree at Stanford.