Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Writer: Shanna Relford
news@utsi.edu
The University of Tennessee Space Institute’s Support Council
will hold a full council meeting on Thursday, Aug. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in
the UTSI cafeteria. Support Council Chairman Dick Farrar requests
that all Support Council members come and bring a prospective member
to the meeting. The guest speaker for the evening’s meeting will be
Dr. W. Michael Farmer, Western historical fiction author, noted
atmospheric scientist, and UTSI graduate.
Born in Nashville in 1944, Dr. Farmer holds a Ph.D. in Physics from
UTSI. While completing his graduate work under J.D. Trolinger, he
worked as a graduate research assistant and engineer at Arnold Air
Force Base on a number of programs involving particle field
holography and laser velocimetry. In that capacity, he obtained
three patents that were assigned to the Air Force and produced a
number of refereed technical papers that appeared in Applied Optics,
the Journal of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation
Engineers, and the Journal of the Optical Society of America.
He later joined the UTSI faculty, first as a research associate, and
then as an associate and full professor of physics. At UTSI, he
conducted research in the measurement of atmospheric aerosols and
military countermeasures to electro-optical weapons sensors,
conducted short courses, and taught graduate level optics and
classical electromagnetic theory. Also, while at the Space
Institute, he served as an advisor to NATO for the U.S. Army and
designed tests and evaluated test results for the PG-16 Trials.
As a private consultant, he has supported government agencies,
universities, and commercial companies in the development of
analytical models, data analysis, and the design and development of
advanced aerosol instrumentation. In 2001, he produced a two-volume
guide for understanding atmospheric effects on remote
sensoroperation in the atmosphere and has lectured at numerous
Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers’ short courses on
this subject.
Dr. Farmer now serves as the Independent Development Evaluator for
the Army Distributed Learning System in Newport News, Virginia.
During his career he has produced 34 modeling publications and
presentations, 91 test and evaluation publications and evaluations,
15 NATO-related publications and presentations, 92 instrumentation
publications and presentations, and developed eight major
instrumentation systems.
Dr. Farmer has traveled widely in the United States, Canada, Europe,
and Pacific Rim countries. He now lives and writes in the Tidewater
area of Virginia. Dr. Farmer is the author of the Western novel
Hombrecito's War Still Rages and several short stories.
