:''See John McWhirter (disambiguation) for other people of the same name.'' John G. McWhirter FRS FREng FIMA FInstP FIEE

FLSW The Learned Society of Wales ( Welsh: Cymdeithas Ddysgedig Cymru) is a learned society and charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the Welsh natio ...

is a British mathematician and engineer in the field of

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, and scientific measurements. Signal processing techniq ...

. John McWhirter attended

Newry High School Newry High School is a secondary school in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK. It is a controlled, co-educational school for pupils aged 11-18. In 2023, the Principal is Mr Iestyn Brown. History The origins of the present day Newry ...

. He graduated in mathematics from

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

in 1970, and did his PhD there in 1973 on "The Virial Theorem in Collision Theory" under Benjamin Moiseiwitsch. He started working in the Signal Processing Group at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment,

Great Malvern Great Malvern is an area of the spa town of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the eastern flanks of the Worcestershire Beacon and North Hill, and is ...

, in the late 1970s, and has worked there for RSRE's successor organizations, currently QinetiQ. Prof. McWhirter left QinetiQ on 31 August 2007 to take up his current post as Distinguished Research Professor in Engineering at

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

. His work has mainly been in military areas including

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

and communications, recently branching into civil applications. A particular interest is "blind" signal detection in which one does not know whether a signal is present, or its nature.

Awards and honours

* 1986 honorary

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at Queen's University Belfast * 1988 visiting professor at

* 1996 Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) * 1999 Elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. * 2000 Honorary Doctorate from the Queen's University Belfast * 2002 Honorary Doctorate from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

* 2003

EURASIP The European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) is an international scientific society for the theory and application of signal processing. It was established on the 1st of September 1978.It hosts the European Signal Processing Conference ( ...

European Group Technical Achievement Award He is also a Fellow of the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) and in 2002/3 its president. He is also a Founding Fellow of the

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales (Welsh: Cymdeithas Ddysgedig Cymru) is a learned society and charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the Welsh nation ...

Selected papers

* On the numerical inversion of the Laplace transform and similar Fredholm integral equations of the first kind, J G McWhirter and E R Pike, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 11 1729–1745 (1978) * Some systolic array developments in the United Kingdom, John V. McCanny and John G. McWhirter, Computer Volume 20, Issue 7 p. 51 (1987)

References

External links

Cardiff University page
{{DEFAULTSORT:McWhirter, John Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Malvern, Worcestershire Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Academics of Cardiff University Qinetiq Fellows of the Institute of Physics Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales People from Newry