Alamogordo native receives Ph.D in Electrical Engineering

ALAMOGORDO — Dr. Joseph C. Hardin, a 2003 graduate of Alamogordo High School, recently graduated from Colorado State University with a doctorate in electrical engineering. 

Hardin is the son of Joseph and Carel Hardin, of Alamogordo, and grandson of Hazel Miles and the late Vernard C. Miles, also from Alamogordo. During his time at Alamogordo High School, Hardin was very active in football, track and field, cheerleading and earned a black belt in Shotokan Karate.

Hardin began his studies at New Mexico State University in electrical engineering. Upon completing his Bachelor of Science, Hardin began his master's degree in both electrical engineering and math. Hardin researched audio quality using EEG brain responses to music and published a few articles on this research and presented it at many conferences around the world.

After completing his master's degree, Hardin decided to continue his education and work toward his doctorate. After weighing his many options, Hardin chose Colorado State University.

Hardin began his doctorate program in 2010 and proved himself invaluable to his research group and on many field campaigns involving weather radars. On one field campaign, Hardin received an award for outstanding fieldwork from NASA. He was the lead mentor of a summer research program for undergraduate students in electrical engineering or meteorology every summer of his doctorate. Where he was in charge of selecting students, organizing research projects and mentoring students directly in their research.

Many of Hardin's students went onto be successful in their chosen field of study, with many continuing onto prestigious graduate programs. Hardin also organized a seminar series for his research group, bringing in big names in the field of weather radars to give weekly talks.

While working on his doctorate, Hardin was an intern at Sandia National Laboratory, where he worked on military radars. As part of his research, Hardin created an open source software package that continues to help scientists interpret and understand the distribution of water droplet sizes in the atmosphere. Hardin has presented his research at many conferences worldwide and is in the process of writing articles about this research.

Upon graduating from Colorado State University, Hardin accepted a job offer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. In this position, Hardin is one of the four radar engineers in charge of managing 33 radars worldwide.