American Meteorological Society to honor Swift
Calvin Swift, professor emeritus in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been chosen to receive the Special Award from the American Meteorological Society during its annual meeting in Atlanta. The award will be presented Jan. 20.
Swift is being honored “for sustaining over 30 years an exceptional, interdisciplinary project, resulting in continuous operational monitoring of hurricane surface winds, improved hurricane intensity advisories, and saving countless lives.”
Swift earned his Ph.D. in physics from the College of William and Mary in 1969. Among other positions, he was an aerospace technologist and group leader at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., from 1962-81. He was a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department from 1981 until his retirement in 2001.
He is the originator of the concept of using the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer to remotely measure rain rate and ocean wind speed in hurricanes. He developed with students an L-Band Synthetic Aperture Microwave Radiometer to measure soil moisture and ocean temperature remotely. His research on the dielectric constant of sea water provided the technical basis for the development of the Aquarius satellite to remotely measure salinity.
Among other honors, Swift was elected as a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1983. He also received the IEEE Centennial Award in 1984. In 1994, he received the Distinguished Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, and he was presented with the Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Council on Oceanic Engineering in 1977.
The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of more than 14,000 professionals, professors, students and weather enthusiasts.
November 2, 2009.
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