Skip to main content

David G. Long, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D. 1989University of Southern California. Electrical Engineering. Dissertation Title: Model-Based Estimation of Wind Fields Over the Oceans From Wind Scatterometer Measurements. Advisor: Prof. J. Mendel.
M.S. 1983Brigham Young University. Electrical Engineering. Thesis Title: Artifical Construction and Synthesis of Speech Based on the Time-Varying Vocal Tract Parameters of One Speaker Using the Voice Characteristics of a Second Speaker. Cum Laude.
B.S. 1982

Brigham Young University. Electrical Engineering. Summa Cum Laude.

Professional Experience

1990-

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. (1999-) Teach undergraduate and graduate courses in electrical engineering. Research in spaceborne scatterometry and microwave remote sensing.

Associate Dean, Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. (2012-2016) Over research, faculty, graduate programs, space (including a new building), and safety.

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. (1994-99) Teach undergraduate and graduate courses in electrical engineering. Research in spaceborne scatterometry and microwave remote sensing.

Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. (1990-94) Teach undergraduate and graduate courses in electrical engineering. Research in spaceborne scatterometry and microwave remote sensing.

Director, BYU Center for Remote Sensing. (2000-) Direct and promote interdisciplinary research across the BYU campus.

Head, BYU Microwave Earth Remote Sensing (MERS) Laboratory. (1991-)

Principal Investigator. (1990-) NASA, NSF, and DOD-sponsored research projects involving microwave remote sensing. Member of the Tropical Rain Measuring Mission (TRMM), NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), QuikSCAT, SeaWinds, and Ocean Vector Wind (OVWST) Science Teams.

Consultant. (1990-) Technical expertise in scatterometry performance and design analysis, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), signal processing, and resolution enhancement. Clients include various NASA centers and private firms.

1983-1990

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology. Pasadena, California.

Principal Investigator. (1989-90) NASA-sponsored research project "Model-Based Wind Retrieval of Wind Fields Using Seasat Scatterometer Data."

Experiment Manager, SCANSCAT Project. (1989-90) Responsible for both technical and programmatic aspects of the SCANSCAT Project (now known as SeaWinds), part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EoS). Prepared and negotiated budgets and technical requirements between JPL, NASA headquarters, other NASA centers and contractors.

Group Leader, Radar Systems Engineering. (1988-90) Supervised a staff of 5 radar system engineers involved in the design and performance analysis of JPL flight projects in spaceborne radar remote sensing including SIR-C and Magellan (synthetic aperture radars) and NSCAT, NUSCAT, and SCANSCAT (scatterometers). Responsibilities included interviewing new personnel, task assignment, reporting to Project Offices, and negotiating budgets.

Project Engineer, Spaceborne Scatterometer Projects Office. (1988-90) Senior technical manager for the JPL scatterometer projects office. Responsible for the high level design, analysis, and technical management of the scatterometer projects including instrument design and fabrication, algorithm development and coding for the ground processing system, mission operations, calibration data analysis, system performance analysis, development and maintenance of system requirements, and supervision of the Project Engineering staff.

Member Technical Staff. (1983-1987) Developed requirements and the high-level design for the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) project as the NSCAT Instrument Systems Engineer. Developed performance analysis tools and performed tradeoffs in developing the onboard signal processor design and the ground processing system.

1982

ESL, Inc. Sunnyvale, California (summer internship)

Member Technical Staff. Studied the effects of bit errors in digital communication channels on the intelligibility of LPC-coded speech.

1980,1981

Timet Corp. Henderson, Nevada (summer internship, two summers)

Engineer. Designed custom analog and digital control systems for high-power vacuum arc furnaces and molten salt electrolytic cells.

Professional Activities

  • IEEE Fellow, 2008
  • Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Code LIbrary (RSCL), 2018-2021
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 2003-
  • Guest editor for special issues of multiple journals
  • Trustee, BYU Affiliate of the Utah Space Grant Consortium, 2002-
  • Served for six years on the National Academies' (NA) standing Committee on Radio Frequencies. Co-authored and/or contributed to multiple NA reports. Reviewer.
  • Member Americal Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • Member Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Sigma Xi honor societies
  • Faculty advisor for the BYU Zeta Eta Chapter of Eta Kappa Nu 1990-2012
  • Faculty advisor for Tau Beta Pi from 1990-1996, 2011-2012

Awards

2008BYU Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. Top faculty award at BYU.
2004BYU Sponsored Research Award. For outstanding achievement in scholarly activities funded by external sponsors.
2002BYU Karl G. Maeser Excellence in Research and Creative Arts Award. For outstanding research and creative accomplishments.
2000NASA Group Achievement Award. For contributions to the QuikSCAT Science Team.
1997NASA Team Recognition. For contributions to the NSCAT Science Team.
1986,1988NASA Certificate of Recognition. For the development of a sophisticated computer graphics package which was commercially distributed by NASA's Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC).
1986,'88,'91'91,'92NASA Certificate of Recognition. For technical papers on scatterometer instrument design, analysis, and data processing.