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This is the 28th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy...
This is the 28th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy carries out the responsibilities for which it was established in 1964.
Under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering was formed as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. Members are elected on the basis of significant contributions to engineering theory and practice and to the literature of engineering or on the basis of demonstrated unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology. The National Academies share a responsibility to advise the federal government on matters of science and technology. The expertise and credibility that the National Academy of Engineering brings to that task stem directly from the abilities, interests, and achievements of our members and international members, our colleagues and friends, whose special gifts we remember in this book.
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BY TREVOR S. BIRD SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
ROBERT CLINTON HANSEN was born on Aug. 3, 1926, in Rolla, Missouri, in a farming community near St. Louis. His parents were Grace Richards Hansen and Jens Rasmus Hansen. Bob’s father was born shortly after his parents immigrated from Denmark. The Hansen family had a long farming tradition, and Bob had a rural upbringing. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the Missouri School of Mines in Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology) in 1949, after serving in the U.S. Navy as an electronic technician from 1945 to 1946. From 1949 to 1955, he worked at the University of Illinois Antenna Laboratory, earning a Ph.D. in 1955 under the supervision of Ed C. Jordan (NAE 1967).
During graduate school, Bob met Dorothy Hays, and they married in 1952. Upon completing his Ph.D., Bob and Dorthy moved to Los Angeles, where she taught in local schools. Dorothy Elizabeth Hansen (June 2, 1928 - March 24, 2012) was born in Danville, Illinois, the second of four children of Robert and Mary Hays. The family later moved to Decatur, Illinois. After graduating from Decatur High School, she earned an M.S. in library science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
Bob joined Hughes Aircraft Company in 1955, serving as section head in the Microwave Laboratory, working on antennas. In 1960, he became a senior staff member in the Telecommunication Laboratory of Space Technology Laboratories (STL), later owned by TRW. From 1961 to 1971, he was associate director of satellite control, director of the Test Mission Analysis Office, and operations group director of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Systems Engineering Office at Aerospace Corporation. From 1967 to 1970, he worked at KMS Industries in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
During this time, Bob and Dorothy had two daughters, Peggy and Kathy. Their family moved several times due to Bob’s work, living in Manhattan Beach, California, and Ann Arbor before settling in Tarzana, California. Dorothy then became the district librarian for Camarillo's Pleasant Valley schools. She had a deep love of languages, literature, music, museums, cats, documentaries, and dramas, interests she shared with Bob.
In 1971, Bob founded R.C. Hansen Inc., an antenna and system-related problems consultancy. Over the years, he worked on a variety of antennas, served high-profile clients, and became widely regarded as the preeminent consultant in antennas and electromagnetics.
Bob’s contributions to the field earned him wide recognition from his peers. In 1975, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering by the University of Missouri at Rolla and became an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) director. The Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Association at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1981. He received the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) Barry Carlton Best Paper Prize Award in 19901 and the IEEE Electromagnetics Award in 2002. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 1992.
Bob was among the first to simulate antennas on a mainframe computer. He applied asymmetric spherical harmonics on ILLIAC (Illinois Automatic Computer), one of the earliest computers based on Von Neumann architecture. The ILLIAC became operational in September 1952 at the University of Illinois. He continued writing his own code virtually up until the final weeks of his life, using techniques such as weighted residuals, including moment methods, geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD), and integral equations. He maintained a meticulous record of his programs and took great pride in his personal computer system at home.
Bob’s work spanned a wide range of topics, and he authored papers and articles on low noise antennas, steering arrays, near-field power densities, reduced RCS measurements, minimum spot size of focused apertures, fundamental antenna limitations, compact ranges, superconducting antennas, among others. He was editor of the IEEE AP-S (Antennas and Propagation Society) annual newsletter for volumes 3 to 6 (1960-63). His first paper, co-authored with Ed Jordan, was published in 1953, and his first IEEE publication appeared in 1957.
Throughout his career, he published over 120 papers, approximately 90 of which appeared in IEEE journals. He also wrote or edited seven books on antennas and propagation, all of which remain in print. His most notable work is the three-volume book set on Microwave Scanning Antennas (Academic Press, 1964-66), the first comprehensive book on array antennas. He was an associate editor of Microwave Journal (1960-95), Radio Science (1967–69), and the Microwave Engineer’s Handbook (1970).
He was a life fellow of the IEEE, a fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and served as president/chairman of the IEEE AP-S from July 1963 to December 1964. For the first 18 years of the Society, the president’s term lasted 18 months until a revision of the Constitution and Bylaws in 1967 changed the term structure. Bob was elected president again in 1981, making him one of only two individuals to serve multiple terms. For his service and continuing contributions, he was elected the third Honorary Life Member of AdCom (the governing body of AP-S) in 1986, following Lester C. Van Atta (circa 1956) and Ed C. Jordan (in 1975). Additionally, he was an IEEE director in 1975 and chair of the U.S. Commission B of URSI (International Union of Radio Science) (1967-69).
Bob was the consummate antenna engineer. He was known for his broad perspective on antenna engineering and his preference for physics-based techniques over trends and fads. He valued a physical understanding of antenna problems, particularly in design, and carefully examined each problem before considering numerical solutions. He was meticulous in verifying results to ensure they stood up to scrutiny. His expertise was highly sought after by U.S. government agencies and commercial clients alike. At AP-S symposiums, his questions were deep, insightful, and occasionally controversial, reflecting his sharp analytical mind and unwavering commitment to rigor in the field.
Despite his professional accomplishments, Bob remained modest and unpretentious. His daughter Peggy fondly recalled: “One thing he did that has always impressed and guided me is that he never touted himself as ‘Doctor Hansen’ but always ‘Bob.’ I would often hear him on the phone saying something like, ‘Is Dr. [name] available? It’s Bob Hansen,’ even when I knew the person he was trying to reach was less well-known than he was. If you looked up ‘unpretentious’ in the dictionary, odds are you’d see a picture of my Dad.”
I first met Bob at the 1987 AP-S Symposium in Blacksburg, Virginia, when I attended the AdCom meeting as an observer. He introduced himself, and we had a lively discussion on arrays and mutual coupling, which I was researching at the time. This meeting sparked a friendship that lasted over 30 years.
Bob was invited to the second Australian Symposium on Antennas in 1989 at the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Sydney. His talk on superconducting antennas was well-received and later published as a full paper and book.2 I reserved a hotel for him, but Bob had booked a modest, somewhat rundown establishment on one of Sydney’s busiest roads. I tried to convince him to change accommodations, but he politely declined. It was one of many instances that highlighted his humility and unpretentious nature – a true testament to his character.
Throughout the 1990s, I made regular business trips to Los Angeles, where Bob and Dorothy always extended a warm invitation to visit their home in Tarzana. Their house and gardens were immaculately kept and a source of great pride and pleasure.
One memorable occasion in July 1989 was a Hollywood Bowl concert, which they regularly attended in the summers. That evening’s program featured the flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and guitarist Alexandre Lagoya, accompanied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which led the soloists in compositions by Paganini and Carcassi.
Bob’s daughter Peggy also recalled: “Dad was passionate about classical music, particularly works by J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, and Handel (among many others), and had a massive collection of vinyl LPs as well as CDs. Opera could often be heard in our house, usually featuring the likes of Beverly Sills, Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, or Kiri Te Kanawa. He also enjoyed and collected murder mysteries and suspense novels; his favorite authors were Agatha Christie and Edgar Wallace. He loved everything Jane Austen, as well as art, architecture, food and wine, history…lots more. Other beloved pursuits included hiking, photography, DIY projects, and travel. I recall many Sierra Club family camping/hiking trips, as well as numerous road trips to national parks or monuments and other areas of unique natural beauty. He was fond of order but enjoyed a bit of (mild) chaos or a practical joke every now and again. He was fascinated by all kinds of science and was, I think, pleased that both my sister and I chose science-related careers. Math was his real love, however, and I vividly recall his excitement when I asked him one afternoon, at age 9 or 10, ‘Hey Dad, what's an integral?’ Two hours later, my head was ready to explode.”
I had several technical collaborations with Bob during my time at CSIRO, including work on a large horn antenna with very low sidelobes for a U.S. defense satellite. After designing a new bowl-shaped horn and building an initial 100-kilogram prototype, we developed a lightweight version using metalized carbon fiber, reducing the weight to just 10 kilograms. Bob provided valuable guidance on technical specifications such as spot size, gain, and sidelobes, as well as manufacturing alternatives. One of the companies Bob identified in southern California successfully fabricated the lightweight horn.
Bob was a visionary and forward-thinking antenna engineer who made groundbreaking contributions to arrays and superconducting antennas. He was a mentor to young researchers and a dedicated contributor to the IEEE AP-S for more than 60 years. To this day, he remains only the second AP-S president to serve more than one term. I consider myself truly fortunate to have known Bob and collaborated with him. Bob and Dorothy’s surviving daughters are Peggy Hansen, a radiologist, and Kathy Hansen-Adams, a nurse.
__________________________ 1Hansen RC. 1990. Superconducting antennas. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 26(2):345-55. 2Hansen RC. 2006. Electrically Small, Superdirective, and Superconducting Antennas. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.