21st Coherent Laser Radar Conference
June 26th - July 1st, 2022
Big Sky, Montana
2) Student travel grants are available to support students travel, lodging, and registration costs. Please reach out to trent@montanaphotonics.org for more information.
The 21st Coherent Laser Radar Conference (CLRC-21) will be held June 26th through July 1st, 2022, at the beautiful Big Sky Resort in Big Sky, Montana.
All CLRC attendants will have full access to all poster areas, all oral sessions, and all vendor exhibits for a single registration fee.
The following distinguished scientists, engineers and leaders from academia, industry, defense, and federal agencies have been invited as speakers for the relevant topical sessions.
Karen St. Germain
Director, Earth Science Division, NASA

Dr. St. Germain came to NASA from the NOAA Satellite and Information Service, where she served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator, Systems (DAAS), with responsibility for leading the development of the nation’s operational weather satellite systems. From 2011 to 2016, Dr. St. Germain served in the Space, Strategic and Intelligence Systems (SSI) Office, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OUSD AT&L), where she managed a broad portfolio of defense and intelligence satellite programs.
Dr. St. Germain is a leader in enterprise-level planning and multi-organizational space programs of national significance. She is also an expert in major satellite systems development, with particular proficiency in transitioning new technology into operational systems. Dr. St. Germain had a successful research career at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Nebraska, and the Naval Research Laboratory. She has performed research aboard ice-breakers in the Arctic and Antarctic, flown through hurricanes and tropical storms on NOAA’s P-3 airplanes and measured glacial ice on a snowmobile traverse of the Greenland ice sheet.
Dr. St. Germain holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Union College (1987) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts (1993). She is also a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College, National Defense University where she earned a Master of Science degree in National Security Strategy in 2013.
Clayton Turner
Director, Langley Research Center, NASA

Turner has served the agency for more than 30 years. He has held several roles at NASA Langley, including systems engineer, Chief Engineer, Engineering Director, Associate Center Director, and Deputy Center Director.
After graduation from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 1990, Turner began his career with NASA serving as a design engineer with the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment project, where he spearheaded development of the laser aligning, bore-sight limit system.
Through his career, he has worked on many projects for the Agency including the Earth Science Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation Project; the Earth observing technology development Gas and Aerosol Monitoring Sensorcraft Project; the materials technology development Gas Permeable Polymer Materials Project; the Space Shuttle Program Return-to-Flight; the flight test of the Ares 1-X rocket; the flight test of the Orion Launch Abort System; and the entry, decent and landing segment of the Mars Science Laboratory.
Prior to joining NASA, Turner was the chief engineer at Dynamic Recording Studio in Rochester, New York, where he was responsible for technical and artistic recording of audio and video content spanning multiple musical and instructional styles.
Turner has received many prestigious awards such as the Presidential Rank Award, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal, the Paul F. Holloway Non-Aerospace Technology Transfer Award, and RIT’s College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni award. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and he is also a member of the RIT Board of Trustees.
In recognition of his commitment to the engineering profession, contributions to the local community, and support of education Turner was inducted into the Monroe Community College Alumni Hall of Fame. He previously served on the Virginia STEM Education Commission.
Turner lives in Hampton, Virginia, with his wife and has two sons. He is active in community outreach coaching youth sports and promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers.
R. Michael Hardesty
Assoc. Director, Env. Observations, Modeling, and Forecasting, CIRES

Dr. Hardesty has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific papers, mostly on lidar-related topics, and has presented more than 30 invited papers on active remote sensing at international symposia on multiple continents He has been a NATO Fellow at the University of Hull, England and Visiting Scientist at the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique, France, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. During 2005 he spent a semester as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Electrical Engineering working with the atmospheric lidar group at the City College of New York in Manhattan. He is a recipient of the NOAA Distinguished Career Award and the International Radiation Commission Coordinating Committee on Laser Atmospheric Studies (IRC/ICLAS) Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Hardesty received the B.S. degree in 1971 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the M.S. degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1972, both in Electrical Engineering. In 1984 he received the Ph.D. from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, in Electrical Engineering (Optics and Meteorology).
Dr. Hardesty is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), where he served on the AMS Council and Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Geophysical Union. He has served as Chief Editor of the AMS Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology and previously served as Associate Editor for OSA’s Applied Optics journal specializing in Atmospheric and Ocean Optics. He is or has been a member of several science teams and institutional review panels focusing on lidar-related topics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, and the European Space Agency. Previously, he has been a member of the IRC/ICLAS), the AMS Committee on Laser Atmospheric Studies, and the Administrative Committee of the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society of the IEEE. He currently is co-chair of the multi-agency Working Group on Space-based Lidar Winds, and a member of the ESA Aeolus Science Advisory Group.
During his career, Dr. Hardesty mentored or hosted as visitors many prominent lidar scientists, including Alan Brewer, Christoph Senff, Guy Pearson, Martin Platt, Alain Dabas, Andreas Fix, Rob Newsum, and Aniceto Belmonte. Notable among his many research collaborations have been joint research projects with JPL, Goddard Space Flight Center, Langley Research Center, NCAR, NIST, the Naval Research Laboratory, CNRS, DLR, the Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, UMBC, the City College of New York, Hull the University of Colorado, the University of Oklahoma, Penn State University, and Ball Aerospace.
Key Dates
Nov. 15th: Abstract submission starts
Dec. 1st: Registration opens
Mar. 4th: Abstract submission closes (post deadline abstracts still accepted)
Apr. 1st: Notification of abstract acceptance
June 1st: Post deadline abstract submission closes
June 26th: Student tutorials
and welcome reception
June 27th-July 1st: Conference oral and poster sessions
Invited Speakers:
Farzin Amzajerdian NASA Langley
Sammy Henderson Beyond Photonics
Shoken Ishii TMU
Sen Lin Aurora Innovation, Inc.
Zhaoyan Liu NASA Langley
Jakob Mann Denmark Technical University
George Emmitt Simpson Weather Associates
Mike Watts Analog Photonics
Benjamin Witschas DLR, Germany
Stephan Rahm DLR, Germany
Shumpei Kameyama MELCO
Anthony Yu NASA
Robert Byer Stanford University
Jirong Yu NASA
Charles Bouman Purdue University
Hosted by:

Conference Chair:
Dr. Upendra N. Singh

Dr. Upendra N. Singh, NASA Technical Fellow for Sensors and Instrumentation at the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, NASA Langley Research Center is an internationally recognized atmospheric scientist and laser remote sensing expert with 30 years’ experience.
Dr. Singh has organized/chaired over 50 international symposia/conferences and has authored/co-authored over 450 scientific articles in atmospheric sciences and remote sensing area. He is an elected fellow of the International Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), the Indian Meteorological Society and a Senior Member of IEEE.
Local Organizing Committee:

MPIA / Aurora Innovation (Committee Chair)

MPIA (CLRC Admin)

MPIA / Vision Aerial

Montana State University

Aurora Innovation

MPIA
Technical Committee:
Krishna Rupavatharam, Montana State University, Bozeman, USA (Committee Chair)
Shoken Ishii, TMU, Japan
Stephan Rahm, DLR, Germany
Stephen Crouch, MPIA, Bozeman, USA
Zeb Barber, Aurora Innovation, USA
Philip Gatt, Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies, USA
David Rabb, Wright Patterson, AFRL, USA
Michael Harris, ZXLidars, UK
Michael Kavaya, NASA Langley, USA
Jean-Pierre Cariou, Leosphere, France
Lodging
Plan ahead and book your travel and lodging today! Hotels allocated for CLRC have limited capacity so reserve yours today.

About CLRC
The 21st conference on coherent laser radar technology and applications is the latest in a series beginning in 1980 which provides a forum for exchange of information on recent events current status, and future directions of coherent laser radar, coherent optical technology, and advanced applications. The conference was founded by Mr. Milton Huffaker, founder and CEO of Coherent Technologies, Inc. After leaving Coherent Technologies, Mr. Huffaker founded and became the CEO of Coherent Investments Inc.
The conference serves as a biannual forum for the exchange of current and future developments within the field of coherent laser radar (lidar) and wind lidar including direct detection wind lidar. The conference will include both invited and contributed papers on all aspects of coherent laser radar, coherent optical technology, and advanced applications. It is intended that the meeting will highlight recent advancements in the field, including component technology and instrumentation, systems (surface, airborne, and space-based), measurements and processing techniques, novel sensing techniques, and emerging requirements for coherent laser radar applications in studies of atmospheric, ocean, surface and target properties.