Alfonso Farina

Alfonso Farina FREng (born January 25, 1948) is an Italian electronic engineer. He is most noted for the development of the track while scan techniques for radars and generally for the development of a wide range of signal processing techniques used for sensors where tracking plays an essential role. He is author of more than 800 publications. His work was aimed to a synergistic cooperation between industry and academy.

Alfonso Farina
Born (1948-01-25) January 25, 1948
Petrella Salto Rieti, Italy
NationalityItalian
Alma materSapienza University of Rome
Known forRadar signal processing
Track while scan
ECCM
Radar clutter
AwardsFred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award (1987)
IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications (2010)
IET Achievement Medals (2014)
Scientific career
FieldsElectronic engineering
InstitutionsSelex ES
University of Naples Federico II

Biography

Alfonso Farina was born in Petrella Salto, a small town near Rieti in 1948. He obtained a laurea in electronic engineering on 1973 at University La Sapienza in Rome. In 1974 he joined Selenia, a Finmeccanica company then become Selex ES. Here he held the role of director of the analysis of integrate systems unit and then chief engineer of large business systems division. More recently, he has been the senior VP CTO of the company and then senior advisor to the CTO. From 1979 to 1985 he also was professor ("incaricato") of radar techniques at the University of Naples.

He retired in October 2014 but, currently, works as a consultant.

Work

The activity of Alfonso Farina spans a wide range of arguments in the area of radars and sensors. His pioneering work on track while scan, now widely used in all radars, was recounted in a classical set of two books[1] [2] that due to their widespread relevance have gone published also with Russian and Chinese translations. A more recent publication by him also accounts for ideas and applications on adaptive radar signal processing. [3]

Alfonso Farina (center) receives the IEEE M. Barry Carlton best paper award 2013 on 25 April 2018.

He has also been the contributor to the article on ECCM, invited by Merrill Skolnik, in the second edition of the Radar Handbook (Ch. 9)[4] and the third (Ch. 24) [5]

He is considered the "father" of Italian industrial PCL radar. From 2004 to 2014, he led the team of engineers in conceiving, designing and implementing successive generations of improved PCL radar systems, extensively tested over several years.

He has been the organizer and general chairman of 2008 IEEE-AESS Radar Conference[6] held in Rome. This was the first time that such conference has been held outside US since its inception on 1974.

Since 2017, he is the Chair of Italy Section Chapter, IEEE AESS-10.

Since 2018, he is in the Editorial Board of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

He is Visiting Professor at University College of London and Cranfield University in UK.

Since 2014, he works as a consultant.

Recently, he gave an interview for the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, with Fulvio Gini hosting, recounting of his professional achievements and more.[7]

In October 2018 he was interviewed at Rai Storia for the "70° anniversario di Leonardo Company" ("70th anniversary of Leonardo Company").[8]

Currently, he is ranked in the list of 2% top scientists in the World.[9]

Awards and honors

Farina is IEEE Fellow since 2000 and International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering since 2005, the latter with the citation "Distinguished for outstanding and continuous innovative in the development of radar signal and data processing techniques and application of these findings in practical systems". He received the award from the hands of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. From 1997 he is Fellow of IET. Since 2010 he is also Fellow of EURASIP. Starting from 2020, he is fellow member of European Academy of Science.[10]

Since November 2020, he has been named “Académico Correspondiente de la Real Academia de Ingeniería de España”.

He won the following awards:

  • Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award, 1987, with the motivation
For development of radar data processing techniques.[11]
Peter Knott (left), director of the Fraunhofer Institute FHR, presents the Christian Hülsmeyer Award to Alfonso Farina (center). On the right Pierfrancesco Lombardo. (IRS 2019, June, Ulm (Germany))
For continuous, innovative, theoretical and practical contributions to radar systems and adaptive signal processing techniques.[12]
For outstanding contributions to radar system design, signal, data and image processing and data fusion.[13]
  • IEEE Signal Processing Society Industrial Leader Award, 2018, with the motivation
For contributions to radar array processing and industrial leadership.[14]
  • Honorary chair of IEEE RadarConf 2020, Florence.[15]
  • 2019 Christian Hülsmeyer Award from the German Institute of Navigation (DGON), with the motivation
In appreciation of his outstanding contribution to radar research and education.
For pioneering contributions to the analysis, design, development, and experimentation of digital-based adaptive radar systems.

References
  1. Alfonso Farina, Flavio Alessandro Studer (1985). Radar Data Processing. 1 – Introduction and Tracking. Research Studies Press. p. 325. ISBN 978-0863800269.
  2. Alfonso Farina, Flavio Alessandro Studer (1986). Radar Data Processing. 2 – Advanced topics and applications. Research Studies Press. p. 362. ISBN 978-0863800382.
  3. Alfonso Farina (1992). Antenna based signal processing techniques for radar systems. Artech House. p. 388. ISBN 978-0890063965.
  4. Merrill Skolnik (1990). Radar Handbook. McGraw-Hill. p. 1200. ISBN 978-0070579132.
  5. Merrill Skolnik (2008). Radar Handbook. McGraw-Hill. p. 1328. ISBN 978-0071485470.
  6. "2008 IEEE Radar Conference". Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  7. Gini, Fulvio (June 2016). "AESS historical interview: A conversation with a friend: Alfonso Farina". IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine. 31 (6): 41–49. doi:10.1109/MAES.2016.160008. S2CID 40300351.
  8. Three minute trailer in Italian.
  9. Baas, Jeroen; Boyack, Kevin; Ioannidis, John (08-10-2020). "Data for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators"". Mendeley Data. V2. doi:10.17632/btchxktzyw.2. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. European Academy of Science.
  11. Recipients of the Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award
  12. Recipients of the Dennis J. Picard Medal
  13. "Recipients of the IET Awards - Achievement Medals". Archived from the original on December 17, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  14. Recipients of IEEE Signal Processing Society Awards and Fellowship.
  15. IEEE RadarConf 2020
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