2023 IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications
Prof. Alberto Moreira, Director of the Microwaves and Radar Institute of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), was awarded the IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications during the IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit and Honors Ceremony in May 2023 in Atlanta, USA. This prestigious IEEE award was presented to him for his outstanding achievements in the field of radar remote sensing with the citation, "For leadership and innovative concepts in the design, deployment, and utilization of airborne and space-based radar systems."
IEEE has over 400,000 members in more than 160 countries and is the world's largest technical professional organization. Its main goal is to promote technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of mankind. IEEE recognizes outstanding achievements and services in its fields of activity each year with various levels of awards. The IEEE Medals belong to the group of IEEE awards with the highest level. In particular, the IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal is awarded for outstanding achievements in the advancement of radar technologies and their applications and is sponsored by Raytheon Technologies, USA.
The IEEE presented the 2023 IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal to Prof. Moreira with the following laudation:
“Alberto Moreira is a pioneer in the field of microwave systems, techniques, and technologies, with particular emphasis on spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for Earth monitoring. The concepts and technologies he developed have pushed the envelope of SAR systems for decades. Since 2001, he has directed the German Aerospace Center’s Microwaves and Radar Institute. In his time there, Moreira has focused the Institute’s considerable powers on innovative SAR missions that provide the data essential to addressing grand societal challenges like climate change, environmental monitoring, and sustainable development. Space-based SAR technology provides high-resolution imagery of the Earth’s surface on a global scale, regardless of weather conditions and sunlight illumination. This makes SAR satellites essential to addressing planetary-scale societal and environmental problems.
One of Moreira’s major accomplishments is the radar satellite mission TanDEM-X, of which he has been the initiator and principal investigator. TanDEM-X is the first bistatic spaceborne SAR system consisting of two satellites flying in close formation—as little as 120 meters apart—a new mission concept for interferometric radar made possible by Moreira’s algorithms and inventions. TanDEM-X generated the first 3D global map of the Earth’s surface at 2-meter height accuracy and this exquisitely detailed map is now the standard for geoscientific, remote sensing, topographical, and commercial applications.
Moreira is currently applying the same degree of dedication and sophistication to future radar satellite missions that would go beyond a digital topographic map and aim to deliver tomographic reconstruction of vegetation canopies and ice volumes, as well as data on surface deformation and change. Moreira initiated the concept and was the principal investigator on a 5-year, large-scale scientific research program to define the science requirements for such tomographic missions. With each satellite operating in a bi- or multistatic configuration, with a wide imaging swath measured at full resolution and polarimetry using scan-on-receive techniques and technologies, this complex and ambitious program could literally change the face of Earth science if realized under Moreira’s visionary leadership.
An IEEE Fellow, Moreira is the Director of the German Aerospace Center´s Microwaves and Radar Institute, Oberpfaffenhofen, Bavaria, Germany.”
In the scope of an interview for IEEE Spectrum, Prof. Moreira said: “I am very honored to receive a most prestigious award in the field of radar technologies and applications. It recognizes the 20 years of hard work my team and I put into our research. What makes the honor more special is that the award is from IEEE”. After receiving the IEEE Picard Medal during the Honors Ceremony in Atlanta, Prof. Moreira also shared a few words of appreciation.
Since 2001 Prof. Moreira is the Director of the Microwaves and Radar Institute at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and since 2002 also a Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on radar remote sensing. His Institute at DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen is considered today a leading research institution in Europe and worldwide in spaceborne radar remote sensing (cf. vote of the international review board during the evaluations of the Microwaves and Radar Institute in 2011 and 2018).