Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine October 2017 - 63

Lo Monte

Figure 8.

NeXtRAD Bistatic Radar for clutter measurements, South Africa.

Lorenzo: What's the radar discovery that changed the world?
Hugh: There have been so many important developments in radar, but one that really stands out in terms of impact was Carl
Wiley's invention of Synthetic Aperture Radar in the early1950s
(Figure 7).
Lorenzo: Among your many discoveries, what would you
consider the best contribution that you made to the radar
community? Best paper? Best system?
Hugh: That's difficult! The two-part paper5 with Chris Baker on
some of the fundamentals of Passive Radar was quite nice. Also,
the third edition of the Stimson Introduction to Airborne Radar
book. The NeXtRAD radar system that we are currently using for
bistatic clutter and target signature measurements is quite sophisticated, and probably unique (Figure 8).
Lorenzo: Tell us about your family and your wife. How can
they handle your very busy schedule?
Hugh: I am just so incredibly grateful to my family, and particularly to Morag, my wife, for their forbearance. They have to put
5

Griffiths, H.D. and Baker, C.J., 'Passive Coherent Radar systems - part I: performance prediction', IEE Proc. Radar, Sonar
and Navigation, Vol.152, No.3, pp153-159, June 2005, and
Baker, C.J., Griffiths, H.D. and Papoutsis, I., 'Passive Coherent
Radar systems - part II: waveform properties', IEE Proc. Radar,
Sonar and Navigation, Vol.152, No.3, pp160-168, June 2005.

OCTOBER 2017

Figure 9.

Hugh receiving the Freedom of the City of London, with his wife Morag.

up with me working at weekends and being away on travel quite
a lot, when I really ought to be spending time with them. Morag
works in the Health Service as a Therapy Radiographer so that she
can appreciate the problems of extracting information from highresolution imagery (Figure 9).
Lorenzo: Tell us about your personal life: do you have any
hobbies?
Hugh: I enjoy cooking, especially fish and seafood. I find cooking to be a source of relaxation at the end of the day. I also like
gardening - especially growing herbs that I can use in my cooking. That teaches me that there are many things that you have to
wait for, and it is interesting to understand the conditions that
different plants need to flourish. As well as the common culinary
ones I also grow some unusual ones, such as wasabi, hops, lemongrass and licorice.
I like reading and listening to music. I also have an old MGB
GT sports car (Figure 10) which has been beautifully restored, and
is an example of excellent British engineering.
Lorenzo: Favorite music?
Hugh: So many! Our younger daughter Alex is a professional musician, and listening to her practicing is always a pleasure (there is
a picture of her playing the flute in the August 2016 issue of the
AES Magazine).
Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Mozart, Verdi, Motown, Feelgoods,
Loose Tubes, Bebop Deluxe...

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine October 2017