Henrik Schmidt is Professor of Mechanical & Ocean Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his MS degree from The Technical University of Denmark in 1974, and his PhD. from the same institution in 1978. From 1978 to 1982 he worked as a Research Fellow at Risoe National Laboratory in Denmark. From 1982 to 1987 he worked as Scientist and Senior Scientist at the NATO SACLANT ASW Research Centre in Italy. He has been on the MIT faculty since 1987. He has served as Associate Director of Research at the MIT Sea Grant College Program from 1989-2002, and as Associate Department Head 1994-2002. He served as Acting Department Head of Ocean Engineering from 2002 - 2004.
Professor Schmidt's research has focused on underwater acoustic propagation
and signal processing, in particular on the interaction of sound in the ocean
with seismic waves in the ocean bottom and the Arctic ice cover. His work has
been of theoretical, numerical and experimental nature. He has been Principal
Investigator in two Arctic ice station experiments, and Chief Scientist for
several recent, major experiments in coastal environments. He has developed
numerically efficient numerical algorithms for propagation of acoustic and seismic
waves in the ocean and solid earth environment, including the SAFARI code and
its successor OASES
which is used as a reference propagation model in more than 100 institutions
around the world, including all US Navy laboratories and most major universities
involved in underwater acoustics and seismic research. The OASES code is also
used extensively by several private DoD contractors as part of their sonar processing,
and by the oil exploration community. In recent years Professor Schmidt has
been pioneering the development of new underwater acoustic sensing concepts
for networks of small Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). Thus, in collaboration
with SACLANT Undersea Research Centre he is exploring the possibility of using
AUVs for measuring the three-dimensional acoustic scattering from the seabed
to detect and identify buried objects, with application to mine countermeasures
and environmental management in the littoral ocean. Also, he has been leading
the development of a synergy of ocean acoustic tomography and direct sampling
by autonomous underwater vehicles for observation and forecasting of ocean processes
on multiple scales.
Professor Schmidt has authored many articles on underwater acoustics, seismics
and signal processing, and has co-authored a textbook on computational ocean
acoustics. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society
of America (ASA). He served as Chairman of the ASA Technical Committee on
Underwater Acoustics from 1991 to 1994 and he is currently an elected member
of the Executive Council of ASA. He is the 2005 recipient of the ASA “Pioneer
of Underwater Acoustics” medal.
last updated: 071006 webmaster