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 & Remote Sensing 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, and received the 2020 IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation Premium Award. He has likewise received multiple teaching awards. He has over 200 refereed journal, conference, and book chapter publications, and 18 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), 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) to enable nationwide 5G deployment. 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 Senior Editor for Radar Systems for IEEE Transactions on Aerospace & Electronic Systems and is also on the Editorial Board for IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation. He was General Chair of the 2011 IEEE Radar Conference in Kansas City, Technical Chair of the 2018 IEEE Radar Conference in Oklahoma City, and is Technical Chair for the 2022 IEEE Radar Conference in New York City, along with being a member of the Program Committee for the MSS Tri-Service Radar Symposium series. He was Chair of the NATO SET-179 research task group on “Dynamic Waveform Diversity & Design” and a member of SET-182 on “Radar Spectrum Engineering & Management” and SET-227 on “Cognitive Radar”.