Dr. Plant is a Principal Research Scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington. His immediate research group at the laboratory includes Mr. William C. Keller and Mr. Ken Hayes. The primary objectives of this group are to investigate microwave scattering from rough water surfaces and to develop techniques to obtain geophysical information from such scattering.
Dr. Plant received his bachelor's degree in Physics from Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, in 1966 and the MS and PhD degrees from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1968 and 1972. From 1971 to 1973, he was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. In 1973, he joined the staff of NRL and remained there until 1988, serving as head of the Ocean Measurements Section during the final three years. In 1988, he moved to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massacusetts before coming to the Applied Physic Laboratory in 1991. In 1995, he was a visiting scientist at the Max-Planc-Institut fur Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany. In the summer of 2000, he was a visiting scientist at the Institut de Recherche sur les Phenonenes Hors Equilibre in Luminy, France. In 2002-2003, he was a visiting scientist at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Miami in Miami, FL.
Dr. Plant has served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Ocean Engineering and the Journal of Geophysical Research. In 1993, he was awarded the Distinguished Technical Achievement Award by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society. He has authored or co-authored over 60 scientific and technical publications and has co-edited two books. Dr. Plant has served the chief scientist of the SAXON-FPN program and on many national advisory panels. He has been an adjunct member of the USGS Hydro21 committee since 1999. He is also an Affiliate Professor in the Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of Washington and an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Applied Marine Physics at the University of Miami.