Paul F. McManaman

Dr. Paul F. McManamon was co-chair of the recent National Academy of Sciences “Optics and Photonics, Essential Technologies for Our Nation” study.

He is chair of a NAS study on Active EO Sensing. He was Vice Chairman of the NAS “Seeing Photons” study.

Dr. McManamon is a Fellow of SPIE (the International Society for Optics and Photonics), IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), OSA (the Optical Society of America), AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory), DEPs (the Directed Energy Professional society), and MSS (the Military Sensing Symposia). He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA (the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics).

Dr. McManamon received the WRG Baker award from the IEEE in 1998 for the best paper in ANY refereed IEEE journal or publication (> 20,000 papers).

He was president of SPIE in 2006. He was on the SPIE board of directors for 7 years and on the SPIE Executive Committee from 2003 through 2007. Dr. McManamon worked with Dr. Fenner Milton and Dr. Gerry Trunk to found the Military Sensing Symposia, combining IRIS and tri-service radar.

Until May of 2008 he was chief scientist for the Sensors Directorate, AFRL, where he was responsible for the technical aspects of all AFRL sensing technologies, including RF and EO sensing, automatic object recognition, IRCM, electronic warfare, and device technologies. In 2006 he received the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award. Dr McManamon was instrumental in the development of laser flash imaging, initiating the ERASER program as a method to enhance our EO target recognition range by a factor of 4 or 5.

Dr. McManamon has participated in three Air Force Scientific Advisory Board summer studies, New World Vistas in 1995, A Roadmap for a 21st Century Aerospace Force in 1998, and Sensors for Difficult Targets in 2001.