Personality Profile

Art Light was born in the naval hospital at the Naval Air Station (NAS), Corpus Christi, Texas in 1946 and thus began his interest in the US Navy and things nautical. Art graduated from the University of North Carolina (UNC) with a bachelor of science (BS) degree in mathematics and from North Carolina State University (NCSU) with a BS in electrical engineering (EE).

His undergraduate education was interrupted by a four-year stint in the Marine Corps as an Aviation Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) Technician on the EA-6A. As he was about to graduate from college with his BSEE, he thought he was offered a job in ECM at the US Naval Weapons Center (NWC) (now Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC)) in Dahlgren, Virginia. When he reported to work, he discovered that he was going to work in Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), not ECM, and he has been working on EMC ever since.
After reporting to work at NWC, Art spent most of his first year in the Junior Professional Development (JPD) Program before he really started to learn about EMC and its counterpart electromagnetic interference (EMI). Later, he learned how to limit the interference between four missile fire control radars and a surface search radar, all operating at the same time in the same 200 MHz frequency band, and on the same 500 feet of steel and aluminum real estate. This work became part of the Navy's EMC Analysis Program (EMCAP) that is used by the fleet to limit interference between ships' radars and some communications systems operating in battle forces and battle groups at sea.

While he was at NWC, Art worked with Dick Ford, who was the lead radar EMC engineer in the new Shipboard EMC Improvement Program (SEMCIP), sponsored by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Art spent most of the next ten years working on SEMCIP and EMCAP.

Art left Dahlgren in 1979 to become a contractor. He worked for a short while at the Honeywell Spectrum Analysis Center (now Windemere) in Annapolis, Maryland and during this time, he helped develop the Naval Space and Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Electromagnetic Compatibility Support Program (EMCSP). This program was SPAWAR's equivalent of SEMCIP, and later, it was called the Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering Program (EMCEP).

Next, Art joined Electromagnetic Technologies (EMT), which became Evaluation Research Corporation (ERC) and ERC International, and is now Anteon, Inc. At EMT/ERC, he continued to work with SEMCIP and EMCSP/EMCEP. Also, he helped to develop the first EMC problem tracking system, the SEMCIP Management Information and Tracking System (SMITS) and was responsible for managing and maintaining SMITS until 1985.

At ERC, Art ventured into the world of EMC ship design. He participated in the Navy's EMC Advisory Boards (EMCABs) and applied his SEMCIP experience to help NAVSEA and SPAWAR design compatible ships. This work included new ship design and construction on the Canadian Patrol Frigate (CPF), minesweeper-hunter (MSH), and oceanographic survey ship (T-AGS 39/40).
In 1987, Art returned to working as a contractor supporting the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Radar Division on EMC projects for the next fifteen years, as his employer changed its name from Locus, Inc, to Kaman Sciences Corporation to ITT Industries, Systems Division, and finally to ITT Industries, Advanced Engineering & Systems Division.

Dick Ford, at NRL, was working with Russ Carstensen, (the EMC Branch head at the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)) to develop the NAVAIR concept of Centers of Excellence. They established the requirement for certified engineers and accredited EMC testing houses so that the quality of EMC work in support of NAVAIR and eventually all of the Navy and the Department of Defense would be improved. The NRL team helped NAVAIR by working with the National Association of Radio Telecommunications Engineers (NARTE) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). Art became a NVLAP EMC assessor.

During the same period, the Naval Systems Commands decided that it should participate on civilian EMC standards committees. As a result, Art became involved in the activities of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) C63 on EMC (ANSI C63). This led Art to become chairman of an ANSI C63 subcommittee on Unlicensed Personal Communications Services (UPCS) Devices (ANSI C63 Subcommittee 7) and to help develop the EMC and communications test standard for UPCS devices, C63.17 American National Standard for Methods of Measurement of the Electromagnetic and Operational Compatibility of Unlicensed Personal Communications Services (UPCS) Devices.

Art became involved in the annual experiments and demonstrations at the IEEE EMC Symposia. The first year, Art tried to reproduce one of Dr. Clayton Paul's time tested experiments. He had the same results he experienced with physics and EE experiments as an undergraduate - nothing worked according to the manual and theory. The next year, Art discovered that many EMC engineers did not really understand the broadly used term of spread spectrum (SS) communications and he began doing a series of demonstrations to explain what SS communications are and how SS relates to EMC.

Last year, Art and Larry Cohen wrote a theoretical paper about the EMC of ultra-wideband (UWB) devices in the military environment. Art wondered about the effect of UWB devices in the real world. Coleman Research Corporation (CRC) was looking for engineers for a program to determine the EMI effects of UWBs on military receivers. Art and CRC (now SYColeman) got together and Art became the test director. This led to a new set of EMC demonstrations in which Art demonstrates the EMC impact of UWB signals on legacy receivers.

Art and his wife Margaret have two children, a daughter Erin and a son Kurt. Art's spare time activities include biking, jogging, reading and playing computer games. Art is also very active in his church. EMC