News Archive
The Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) proudly celebrated its 20th Anniversary on August 16, 2025, marking two decades of innovation, collaboration, and impact in radar science and engineering. Faculty, students, alumni, and partners gathered for a special gala in Norman, highlighted by keynote remarks from Dr. Robert Palmer, founding director of the ARRC and current Dean of the OU College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences. Distinguished guests, including Dr. Dušan Zrnic—now a senior research scientist at the ARRC following nearly five decades at NOAA/NSSL—joined in commemorating the center's achievements and its role as the nation’s largest academic radar program. Attendees also enjoyed seeing ARRC's Horus and RaXPol radars deployed outside the venue, a fitting showcase of the center’s unique capabilities. It was a memorable evening to celebrate the success of the lab, and to look forward with excitement to many more decades of groundbreaking radar research.
Congratulations to PhD student Jonah Pehl, who earned 3rd place in the Student Oral Presentation competition at the 41st AMS Radar Conference in Toronto. Jonah's talk looked at phased-array radars (PARs), the leading candidate to replace today's rotating NEXRAD network—and asked a simple, high-impact question: how do we keep their polarimetric measurements calibrated? He showed that even small pointing differences between the PAR's H and V beams can bias polarimetric weather measurements, and he outlined practical guardrails to keep the data accurate and consistent for forecasters. Jonah, advised by Dr. David Schvartzman, is now validating these findings on Horus, OU's fully digital polarimetric PAR—helping pave the way for reliable PAR observations.
The second day of the IEEE Radar Bootcamp began with an engaging session on phased arrays, led by Prof. David Schvartzman. Participants then rolled up their sleeves to apply what they learned, using MATLAB and Analog Devices’ “Phaser” board for hands-on experiments.
ARRC student Callin won the first place of Student Paper Awards at the IEEE International Conference - Radar 2025 held in Atlanta, Georgia. His paper was entitled "Reduced-Dimension Reiterative Superresolution." Callin is advised by Dr. Nathan Goodman.
At the IEEE Radar Conference, Mark Yeary and Bill Cornell Jr were recognized for their work on the new revision of the IEEE Standard 686: Radar Definitions.
Shane Flandermeyer has been announced as the recipient of the inaugural ARRC National Security Scholarship. The scholarship was established to recognize outstanding graduate students in the ARRC who are studying fundamental technology and developing innovations related to national security. This prestigious annual award includes a $5000 prize.
Shane is an ARRC graduate research assistant pursuing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering. He has done extensive work in radar resource management, multi-object tracking, real-time signal processing on hardware accelerators, and open-source software development. He is advised by Dr. Justin Metcalf.
Shane was presented the award by Navy Captain Paul Youn at the Joint Military Awards Ceremony held April 16 at OU's Reynolds Performing Arts Center.
Two ARRC graduate students received awards at the annual College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences (CAGS) Student Awards ceremony held on April 16 in the National Weather Center.
Aimee Matland-Dixon, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in the School of Meteorology, was presented the Richard J. Doviak Scholarship Award and Ayano Ueki, pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, received the Tommy C. Craighead Award for Best Paper in Radar Meteorology. Both awards came with a monetary prize.
Aimee is co-advised by Dr. Pierre Kirstetter and Dr. Robert Palmer and Ayano is co-advised by Dr. Palmer and Dr. Boonleng Cheong.
The Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) at ARRC hosted Dr. Joel Dunsmore on April 7th for his first Distinguished Microwave Lecture. His presentation was titled "Modern Methods for Component Measurements using Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs) for 6G Test." The talk touched upon the important and unique features of modern VNAs for precision testing and measurement, especially at higher frequencies.
Dr. Dunsmore is a Keysight R&D Fellow working at the Santa Rosa Site. He received his Ph.D. from Leeds University in 2004. He was a principal contributor to the PNA family of network analyzers, with recent work in non-linear tests, including differential devices and mixer measurements, as well as modulated and spectrum measurements. He has received 36 patents and authored the Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements, 2nd Edition (John Wiley, 2020). He also has a YouTube Channel, @DrJoelVNA.
Thank you, Dr. Dunsmore, for the talk!
The ARRC hosted Dr. Armin Doerry on April 3rd, who presented a seminar as part of the ARRC Distinguished Radar Lecture Series. Dr. Doerry is a distinguished member of technical staff in the ISR Mission Engineering Department of Sandia National Laboratories and a research professor at the University of New Mexico Center for High-Technology Materials. His seminar was titled "Airborne Radar for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance." Dr. Doerry also presented a short course on synthetic aperture radar imaging to ARRC students, faculty, and engineers.
Thank you to Dr. Doerry for your sharing your experience and expertise with us!
