IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - August 2022 - 59

Davis
making his views known, nor did he ever hesitate to share
knowledge and transfer his experience and knowledge to
the next generation of radar engineers. It is widely
recognized that Merrill Skolnik never viewed radar as a
" mature technology " and he was always investigating new
ideas and directions.
CONCLUSION
Figure 5.
Skolnik and Farina, Rome, Italy 2008.
beamforming that can overcome a serious weakness of
current multifunction phased array systems, and recognition
that the electromagnetic spectrum available for radar
might be considerably reduced by the insistent demands
of nonradar users of the spectrum [5].
All of these topics have been researched extensively
over the past 14 years since his prophesy. One example
illustrates his change in attitude about phased array radars.
In the later years, he recognized that digital technology
had come a long way for multimode radar applications.
His concept for wideband digital radar, coined as the ubiquitous
radar, could enable very wide angle, wideband and
simultaneous search and track [6]. Skolnik is widely published
in the IEEE on the topics of phased array radar,
radar antennas, phased array antennas, array signal processing,
directive antennas, detection and propagation
effects, gyrotrons, history, klystrons, marine radar, military
radar, radar applications, radar transmitters, receiving
antennas, transmitting antennas, radar tracking, signal
processing, radar target recognition, search radar, airborne
radar, geophysical techniques, radar clutter, and radar
equipment.
Ed Reedy related his conversations and interactions
with Skolnik as extremely well informed and very knowledgeable.
He had a clear vision about where primarily military
radar technology, but radar in general, should be
focused and where radar research should be directed, and
as the Superintendent of the Radar Division of the Naval
Research Laboratory, he had a significant impact on this
nation's radar research programs. He never hesitated in
This brief history of Merrill I. Skolnik's contribution is a
tribute to his impact on radar systems and technology.
Insight into his impact on individual careers over the past
60 years was provided by Dale Blair, Alfonso Farina, Ed
Reedy, and Jerry Trunk. The whole international radar
community has learned and applied many of the principles
provided by Skolnik.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author acknowledges the kind inputs from Dr.
Skolnik's peers. There are many stories from around the
world on his impact on radar systems and education of our
leaders.
REFERENCES
[1] " Dr. Merrill I. Skolnik, " The Washington Post, Jan. 2022.
[Online]. Available: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/
washingtonpost/name/merrill-skolnik-obituary?id=32513198
[2] " IEEE Dennis Picard Medal, " 2000. [Online]. Available:
https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieeeorg/ieee/web/org/
about/awards/recipients/picard-rl.pdf
[3] M. I. Skolnik, Introduction to Radar Systems. New York,
NY, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1962.
[4] M. I. Skolnik, ed. Radar Handbook. New York, NY, USA:
McGraw-Hill, 1970.
[5] M. I. Skolnik, " Radar: Reflections and speculations, " in
Proc. IEEE Radar Conf., May 2008, doi: 10.1109/
RADAR.2008.4720718.
[6] M. Skolnik, K. Meads, and G. Linde, " An advanced wideband
air surveillance radar, " IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron.
Syst., vol. AES-37, no. 4, pp. 1163-1175, Oct. 2001,
doi: 10.1109/7.976957.
AUGUST 2022
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
59

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/merrill-skolnik-obituary?id=32513198 https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/merrill-skolnik-obituary?id=32513198 https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieeeorg/ieee/web/org/about/awards/recipients/picard-rl.pdf https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieeeorg/ieee/web/org/about/awards/recipients/picard-rl.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RADAR.2008.4720718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RADAR.2008.4720718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/7.976957

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