Chris Curtis, Radar Engineer (CIMMS/NSSL)
Background:
Ph.D. Engineering, University of Oklahoma (2009)
M.S. Applied Math, University of Illinois (1993)
B.S. Math, University of Oklahoma (1992)
Experience:
Chris was born in St. Louis and lived in Missouri until he was fourteen years old, when his family relocated to Norman, Oklahoma (except for his second grade year at Eisenhower when his dad was working on a PhD at OU). He attended Norman High School before moving on to Northwestern University, and eventually returned to Oklahoma to earn his bachelor’s degree at OU. After completing his Master’s degree program at the University of Illinois, Chris was hired to work for Texas Instruments (later Raytheon), focusing on Air-to-Air Missile Radar. In 1999, he was offered a position with OU CIMMS, researching weather radar technology at NSSL. He has remained here in Oklahoma ever since (almost 20 years!) and went on to earn his Ph.D. at OU in 2009.
What He Does:
Chris is a member of the Advanced Radar Techniques team in NSSL’s Radar Research and Development Division. He works on ways to improve radar data quality and is currently studying range oversampling processing. Chris is also a part of the National Weather Radar Testbed, testing Phased-Array Radar technologies. His work is helping to build the Advanced Technology Demonstrator, a fully-digital, solid-state, polarimetric and multi-function phased array radar that will allow research on areas such as pulse compression and adaptive scanning.
Trivia:
Chris and his wife, Terri, have three children, Emily, Hannah, and Ben. In addition to spending time with his family, Chris enjoys rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals and OU Sooners football, participating in family fantasy football leagues, and singing in his church choir.