IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - August 2022 - 57

Obituary
DOI. No. 10.1109/MAES.2022.3181108
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Merrill I. Skolnik's 50 Year Impact on Radar Development
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Mark E. Davis, President, Aerospace Electronics Systems Society,
Clinton, NY 13320 USA
SUMMARY
One of the world's most respected experts on radar, Dr.
Merrill I. Skolnik, passed away on 27 January, 2022, at
the age of 94. For over 30 years, he served as the Superintendent
ofthe Radar Division ofthe Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL) in Washington, DC, as shown at his " office "
in Figure 1. During his career of50 years, he made significant
professional and personal research contributions to
the Naval technology and specifically to the radar field.
He wrote and edited books that for decades were the gold
standard for radar professionals [1].
Merrill Skolnik earned his B.E., M.S.E, and Doctor of
Engineering degrees all from The Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD. He served as the Superintendent of
the Radar Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington,
DC, a Senior Executive Service position, from 1965
to 1996. Prior to that, he was with the Institute for Defense
Analyses, Research Division of Electronic Communications
Inc., MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Sylvania Boston
Engineering Laboratory, and The Johns Hopkins University
Radiation Laboratory.
Dr. Skolnikwas active in the IEEE and received the IEEE
Fellow Award, the Harry Diamond Award, and the IEEE
Centennial Medal by his peers. He was an early chair of the
IEEE Radar Systems Panel and eventually the editor of
the Proceedings ofthe IEEE. He was also a member of the
National Academy of Engineering. One of his most prestigious
awards included the Department of the Navy's Distinguished
Civilian Service award for his outstanding leadership
at NRL in 1981 (Figure 2).
Later, Skolnik was the recipient of the first IEEE Dennis
J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications
in 2000 (Figure 3). This highest IEEE award for
Authors' current address: Mark E. Davis, President, Aerospace
Electronics Systems Society, Clinton, NY 13320
USA (e-mail: medavis@ieee.org).
Manuscript received 29 April 2022; accepted 9 May 2022,
and ready for publication 8 June 2022.
Review handled by Daniel O'Hagan.
0885-8985/22/$26.00 ß 2022 IEEE
AUGUST 2022
radar was presented to Merrill Skolnik " for outstanding
leadership of Navy radar research, authorship of widely
used books on radar, and personal contributions to the
advancement of radar technology and systems " [2].
REMEMBRANCE FROM HIS PEERS
Several current radar leaders provided their early career
experiences working with Skolnik while he was at MIT
Lincoln Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory.
They chronicle a very interesting picture of his constant
investigation into radar technology and its future applications.
These anecdotes are summarized in the following.
Jerry Trunk from NRL and Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory remembers his first meeting with Merrill
in 1967, arriving at NRL and knowing nothing about
radar. Trunk spent his first week at NRL (as probably
many others throughout the world) reading Skolnik's
Introduction to Radar Systems-the first definitive book
on radar (Figure 4) [3].
With respect to radar system development, Skolnik
taught Trunk two gems of wisdom that are still true today.
For naval (and military) radar, the main purpose of the
radar is to bring weapons to bear. Hence, in a cost conscience
environment, one always needs to keep this purpose
in mind when deciding what is good enough. The
second insight he related considered new emerging technologies,
such as stealth. During the very early days of
stealth development, this system capability was first disclosed
to a meeting of three- and four-star military officers.
After the disclosure, they went around the table
asking the question " whether stealth was the biggest threat
to the surface Navy. " All agreed, except for Skolnik, who
stated that no, it was speed. This is still true today as probably
the biggest threat we have is hypersonic!
Ed Reedy from the Georgia Tech Research Institute
(GTRI) relates a similar event shortly after finishing his
graduate degrees, when he reported in the late spring of
1968 to Fort Monmouth, NJ, as his first duty assignment
in the U.S. Army in its Radar Division. He knew absolutely
nothing about radar at that time, and his supervisor
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
57
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