Dr. Cheney served as the Senior Consultant for Corporate and Government Partnerships at ALERT and the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. Phil was a mainstay of Gordon-CenSSIS. He brought a level head and a calm demeanor to our management team. His positive attitude, convincing manner, and quick wit, in addition to his deep knowledge of engineering, and engineering business always made us glad he was on our side. As mentor for the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, Phil was actively engaged and committed to develop the next cadre of engineers who aspire to great things and have the confidence to make it happen.
A man of solid integrity as well as expertise, it was a privilege for all of us to have worked with him and to be able to call him friend. We will miss him.
And we will miss how he would always "work it," and make everything come out okay.
Phil worked at Raytheon for 40 years, rising to the position of Vice President of Engineering including responsibility for Engineering, Program Management, and Quality Management. After retiring from Raytheon in 2001, Phil brought his expertise in engineering and business to many organizations through work as an individual research contributor, engineering project leader, laboratories manager, government programs manager and board member.
Phil's affiliation with Northeastern began in 1990, the same year he became VP for Engineering at Raytheon. He actively supported the Center for Electromagnetics Research. In 2002, he became formally affiliated with Northeastern as Visiting Professor and Engineering Executive in Residence for the College of Engineering. In 2003, he also became the Senior Consultant for Corporate and Government Partnerships for the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. Phil was an important presence in Gordon-CenSSIS, the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, and the DHS-funded ALERT Center of Excellence. He received the BSEE and MSEE from MIT in 1957 and 1958, respectively, and the PhD in EE from Stanford University in 1961.
The Center is in the process of planning a memorial remembrance to celebrate Phil and his central role for us as mentor, sage and colleague.
ALERT is a multi-university Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence (COE). The center seeks to conduct transformational research, technology and educational development for effective characterization, detection, mitigation and response to the explosives-related threats facing the country and the world.
The ALERT research program is driven by inspiring challenges such as ultra-reliable screening, explosives detection at a distance, or unequivocal pre- and post-blast mitigation. These challenges have defined the four core fundamental science research thrusts: Explosives Characterization (F1), Explosives Sensors (F2), Explosive Sensor Systems (F3), and Blast Mitigation (F4). Examples of cutting-edge projects within these thrusts include: study of new improvised explosives, stand-off terahertz spectroscopy, multi-modality imaging, and blast-resistant composite materials. With the collaboration of its industrial and national laboratory partners, ALERT will also focus on transitioning research into fieldable systems such as a multi-mode suicide bomber detection system.
Researchers from the partnership bring strengths in advanced sensor design, standoff weak-target detection, signal processing, and sensor integration, explosives characterization, improvised explosive device (IED) detonator signatures, shock physics, and material science. Combined with national lab affiliates and other strategic academic, industrial, and government partners, they form a team capable of carrying out the daunting ALERT mission.
The ALERT partnership is made up of national and international academic, industrial and government partners. In addition to ALERT co-leaders Northeastern University and the University of Rhode Island, core partners include:
Boston University, California Institute of Technology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Missouri University of Science & Technology, New Mexico State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Texas Tech University, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and Washington State University.
Strategic affiliates are Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Tufts University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Industrial and Government Affiliates are Analogic Corporation, American Science & Engineering, John Adams Innovation Institute, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Company, Siemens Corporate Research, and Textron Systems Corporation.
The report includes information on the Oklahoma City bombing and data and graphs on terrorist attacks and behavior. Read Announcement...
ALERT Co-Director, Michael Silevitch, speaks with news@Northeastern on research being done within ALERT and The Bernard M. Gordon Center For Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems(Gordon-CenSSIS) to help prevent future acts of terror.Read Article
