NEWS
NORMAN, Okla. – Nathan Goodman, Ph.D., has been named director of the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC), effective immediately. Goodman, who has served as interim director since July 2025, has also been appointed an Associate Vice President for Research and Partnerships.
As director, Goodman will oversee the center’s strategic direction, research portfolio and operations with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across engineering, meteorology and related fields at the university. He will mentor faculty and students while advancing innovations in radar science and technology and furthering the significant national and global impact of the ARRC.
In his new role as Associate Vice President for Research and Partnerships, Goodman will support the VPRP in developing and strengthening strategic collaborations with federal agencies and industry and academic partners.
“Nathan’s deep technical expertise, his commitment to mentoring and collaboration, and his tenure within the university and the center make him an ideal leader to bring the ARRC into its next chapter of innovation and growth,” said Matt Hulver, Vice President for Research and Partnerships.
Goodman joined OU in 2012 as associate director of the ARRC and became director of research in 2015. In 2023, he led the development of the ARRC’s science and technology roadmap, an effort that created a focused strategy and organizational success while also removing barriers for individual researchers. Goodman began as interim director when the previous director, Robert Palmer, was appointed dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences and director of the National Weather Center.
Goodman has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, with research focusing on advanced radar technologies. He has served as chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Radar System Panel, an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, general and technical co-chair of several IEEE radar conferences, and as a NATO lecturer. He is a Kenneth L. and Janet M. Smalley Presidential Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Prior to joining OU, he was a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona. From Oct. 2009 to June 2010, he was a Visiting Senior Research Engineer at the Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
Goodman received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Kansas. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He currently serves on the advisory board of the University of Kansas School of Engineering and has served on numerous university committees at OU.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
Three University of Oklahoma graduate students have been named winners of the 2025 Three Minute Thesis competition, which challenges participants to explain their research in three minutes to a non-specialist audience.
Sarah Sharif, a researcher with the University of Oklahoma, has been awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to create innovative light detectors that pick up mid-wave and long-wave infrared signals at higher temperatures than previously considered achievable.
A team from OU and WVU recently earned a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how concept cigarillos influence the potential for addiction. The results will be used to inform the FDA’s impending flavor ban on cigar products and could have wider-reaching implications for other tobacco products that come in flavors, such as e-cigarettes and tobacco-free nicotine pouches.
