Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine April 2017 - 44
Conversation with Paul Rosen Figure 4. This signed appreciation plaque from the Endeavour astronaut crew on the SRTM displays a crew patch that was flown on the mission. It shows the crew (bottom left), the 60-m deployed boom, and the outboard C- and X-band antenna structure, as well as some of the boom stowage canister and the shuttle's tail fin and engines. Images depict an X-band topography result of a volcano from DLR (middle top), an interferogram combined with an optical image of Hawaii (middle left), and an optical image of the Galapagos Islands, taken from the shuttle (middle right). In the upper left and lower right, Endeavour is shown at takeoff and landing. all over the world to verify the final product. SRTM continues to be a standard for topography worldwide, even 16 years after it was flown. Riccardo: I like SRTM, also because it gave us the opportunity to know each other and start our collaboration. You received very important recognitions for the work you did within SRTM, didn't you? Paul: I received two NASA Honor Awards for my contributions to SRTM, of which I am proud. One was for the leadership of the team that developed the algorithms and software to create the global DEM, the other for the actual technical contributions in those algorithms and software. The SRTM DEM is still being used today around the world, which is as satisfying as these awards. Riccardo: I know that there are several other recognitions you received, including the IEEE fellow grade. What role has IEEE had in your career? 44 Paul: IEEE has been a constant presence in my career since I was a student. Even though my research spanned science and engineering, and many of my own publications are in science journals, when it came to the technical remote sensing literature, the IEEE publications were the go-to journals, particularly in the field of SAR and interferometry. My professors and colleagues all published in IEEE journals in the areas of antennas and propagation, aerospace and electronics systems, geoscience and remote sensing, and signal processing. I can remember as a student poring over journals when they arrived in the mail to gain the latest knowledge, especially in signal and image processing. I and my colleagues all had shelves full of journals accumulated over time, signifying how connected we were with the evolution of the field. Once at JPL, I became a regular attendee at the IEEE [International] Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [IGARSS] and became friends and colleagues with many IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE APRIL 2017