WASHINGTON, D.C. –
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Electronics Engineer Christian Jones, Ph.D., received an award for his dissertation entitled “
Robust and Efficient Structure-Based Radar Receive Processing” during the 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Radar Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, May 7.
The 2024 IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) Robert T. Hill Best Dissertation Award recognizes candidates that have recently received a Ph.D. degree and have written an outstanding Ph.D. dissertation in the Field of Interest of the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society.
“I am incredibly honored,” Jones said. “This achievement would not have been possible without the invaluable support from my colleagues and mentors at NRL and the University of Kansas who have encouraged me to explore new avenues and helped me coalesce my research into a cohesive work.”
Jones’s work involved finding ways to make signal processing methods work better and faster. He used real-world data to test his ideas, aiming to create systems that could still perform well even when the models they were based on did not perfectly match in reality.
“This combination has allowed him to rapidly develop and experimentally validate new receive processing methods, thereby greatly shortening the innovation timeline,” said Shannon Blunt, Ph.D., a Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Jones’ advisor. “There were multiple times when Christian had to slow down to explain some new approach to me, which really highlighted his tremendous talent for impactful research.”
Jones’ research focuses on improving the robustness and efficiency of advanced radar signal processing techniques, with the intent that it can help provide warfighters a tactical advantage in terms of reaction time and system robustness in an ever-complex radio frequency environment.
“I would encourage everyone to get a firm grasp on the fundamentals of your field, then get out there and try to explore a wide variety of research avenues even if they seem only tangentially related,” Jones said. “Having that combination of breadth and depth really helps develop a robust skill set that can be applied in many directions.”
Jones added, you never know when you’ll stumble upon a connection that will come in handy later!
“Initially, my cousin Dr. Matthew Morton inspired me when I was deciding what I wanted to do for college,” Jones said. “He invited me to visit Raytheon and see some of the cool stuff he was working on in the world of radar. I didn't understand much of what he showed me at the time, but seeing the environment and scale of the things he was building got me interested in becoming an electrical engineer.”
Later in college, Blunt invited Jones to join the Radar Systems Laboratory, or RSL, at the University of Kansas.
“I was quasi-interested in radar at the time since my cousin was also in the field but still wanted to forge my own career path,” Jones said. “That quasi-interest quickly became an obsession after spending a few months at RSL. Being able to discuss an idea with a colleague, do some theoretical analysis, then go up on our roof to experimentally test it, created a positive feedback loop of exploration and growth that completely captivated me.”
Jones received a Bachelor of Science degree in 2018 and a Doctorate degree in 2023, from the University of Kansas in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include waveform diversity for radar systems, adaptive signal processing, and optimization techniques for computationally efficient signal processing. In 2024, Jones was awarded the University of Kansas’ Moore Award for best dissertation in the department of electrical engineering and computer science. Jones was also awarded second, first, and second place in the Student Paper Competition at the IEEE Radar Conference in 2020, 2021, and 2022 respectively.
Jones works in NRL’s Fire Control Technology Section, which specializes in applied research and experimentation across a range of defense domains, including airborne radar, electronic warfare, distributed systems, kill chain analysis, and threat assessment. The section also delivers subject matter expertise to support mission-critical projects for military sponsors.
About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at (202) 480-3746 or nrlpao@us.navy.mil. Please reference package number at top of press release.
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