Dr. Essam Heggy

Dr. Essam Heggy is a Research Scientist at the Microwave Systems, Sensors and Imaging Lab (MiXIL), at the Viterbi School of Engineering in the University of Southern California and an affiliate of the Radar Science and Engineering Section (3340) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Heggy obtained his MSc. and Ph.D. in 1999 and 2002 with distinguished honors from the Paris VI University in France (UPMC-Sorbonne). His research uses radar surface and subsurface characterization methods to understand water evolution in Earth’s arid environments and planetary surfaces. His research particularly focuses on understanding volatile evolution in the North African Sahara and Arabian Peninsula, as well as Mars, the Moon, Jovian Icy satellites and Near-Earth Objects. His work involves probing structural, hydrological, and volcanic elements in terrestrial and planetary environments using different types of radar imaging and sounding techniques as well as measuring the electromagnetic properties of rocks in the radar frequency range. Heggy’s research expertise spans from laboratory electromagnetic characterization of terrestrial samples and planetary analog materials, radar sounding of aquifers in hyper-arid environments, SAR and InSAR image analysis, GPR surveys in desertic, volcanic and ice-rich environments, FDTD numerical simulations of wave propagation, and data analysis of different terrestrial and planetary radar missions.