Pioneering KU radar researcher to be honored Aug. 6 at ceremony

LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas will honor one of its own with a dedication ceremony at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6, for the Richard K. Moore Conference Room in Nichols Hall. A brief presentation will be followed by the unveiling of a plaque and a reception. The public is invited to attend.

At the time of his death in 2012 at age 89, Moore was widely recognized as a pioneering researcher in the field of radar remote sensing of the earth. During more than 30 years on the electrical engineering faculty, he founded the interdisciplinary Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL) and advised more than 100 graduate students.

Moore’s career began in the 1940s as a radar engineer for RCA and an electronics and radar officer in the U.S. Navy. He received a bachelor of science degree from Washington University in St. Louis and did graduate work there and at Cornell University after leaving the service.  He received a doctorate from Cornell, where his dissertation was his invention of a very low frequency antenna for submarines. He taught at the University of New Mexico from 1951 to 1962.

Moore came to KU as the Black & Veatch Distinguished Professor and remained until his retirement in 1994. His research resulted in scientific instruments being placed aboard NASA and other agency satellites for collecting data and improving understanding of the oceans and the atmosphere.

Moore received the Australia Prize for Science and the Remote Sensing Award from the Italian Center in 1995. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a life Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and the recipient of several awards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and from KU.

Speakers at the ceremony will include Mary Lee Hummert, interim vice chancellor for research; Michael Branicky, dean of the School of Engineering, Glenn Prescott, former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Donnis Graham, a longtime RSL office manager and editor.

Those who wish to attend the ceremony are encouraged to RSVP at KURes@KU.edu. Nichols Hall is located on West Campus at 2335 Irving Hill Road. It is home to KU’s Information and Telecommunication Technology Center and the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets.