Dr. Shannon D. Blunt is the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) at the University of Kansas (KU), Director of the KU Radar Systems Lab (RSL), and Director of the Kansas Applied Research Lab (KARL). He received a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri in 2002, and from 2002 until he joined KU in 2005, he was with the Radar Division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. His research interests are in sensor signal processing and system design with a particular emphasis on waveform diversity and spectrum sharing techniques, having made a variety of contributions that have been deployed in operational radar and sonar systems.

Prof. Blunt received an AFOSR Young Investigator Award in 2008, the IEEE/AESS Nathanson Memorial Radar Award in 2012, was named a Fellow of the IEEE in 2016 for “contributions to radar waveform diversity and design”, was appointed to the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) in 2019, received the 2020 IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation Premium Award, was named a Fellow of the Military Sensing Symposia (MSS) in 2024 for “contributions to national defense and civilian applications of radar waveform diversity and design”, and in 2025 received the IEEE/AESS Warren D. White Award for “fundamental and practical contributions to radar waveform design for advanced radar systems”,  along with multiple teaching awards. He has over 200 refereed journal, conference, and book chapter publications, and 19 patents/patents-pending. He co-edited the books Principles of Waveform Diversity & Design (2010) and Radar & Communication Spectrum Sharing (2018). His research has been supported by NRL, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), the Army Research Office (ARO), the Department of Energy (DoE), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and multiple industry partners.

He has served as a subject matter expert on topics related to radar spectrum management and sharing for DARPA, the Air Force's S&T 2030 Initiative, the National Spectrum Consortium, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), and the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) for America's Mid-Band Initiative Team (AMBIT). He served as Chair of the IEEE/AESS Radar Systems Panel and on the Board of Governors for the IEEE Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society (AESS). He is currently Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Radar Systems, having previously served in multiple roles for IEEE Transactions on Aerospace & Electronic Systems as well as on the Editorial Board for IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation. He has been General Chair or Technical Chair for multiple IEEE Radar Conferences and serves on the Program Committee for the MSS Tri-Service Radar Symposium series. He was also Chair of the NATO SET-179 research task group on “Dynamic Waveform Diversity & Design”.