Luc Vignaud, ONERA's radar research engineer, received the Individual Scientific Achievement Award for his contribution to NATO on September 20th in Berlin, in recognition of his 16 years of achievements on the SET panel - Sensors and Electronics Technology.
In particular, Luc Vignaud chaired five technical groups working on the automatic classification of targets by SAR radar, within the framework of NATO’s STO (Science and Technology Organization). Up to 9 nations, 11 laboratories or organizations, and about 20 physical members participated. Thus, one of its groups was among the first to show that numerical simulation could be used for reconnaissance in SAR radar images; another was the first to show the detection of changes in a scene from two SAR satellites not dedicated beforehand to performing this task (the Canadian Radarsat-2 and the German TerraSAR-X); several identification algorithms in very complex scenes were also created within these groups. He also participated in several other groups and co-organized two NATO/STO symposiums, as well as a Lecture Series. He defended his thesis at ONERA in 1996, and pursued his entire career there.
In addition, this recognition opens the door to his personal recognition for work done for NATO’s STO, since it is the first time that this distinction has been awarded to a person instead of to a group. Hurray for him!
Dr Thomas Killion, chair of the NATO S&T board,
awards Luc Vignaud
