http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ding-phone-bombs/story-e6frg6nf-1225843035726
MICHAEL Steer feels rightly pleased that he has saved the lives of thousands of allied soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq after his work stopped the use of mobile phones to trigger roadside bombs.
The US military establishment feels the same way about the Australian, who often spent up to 90 hours a week for several years in his laboratory to pinpoint the vulnerability.
Professor Steer, an expert on electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, has received a special civilian medal for his efforts.
Major General Nick Justice, head of the US Army's research and development command, described his work as a "game-changer of modern warfare" when he handed him the US Army Commander's Award for Public Service last week.
Much of Professor Steer's work remains classified but he told The Weekend Australian yesterday that his invention combined abstract communications theory and basic physics to prevent mobile phones being used to trigger explosives.
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Military vehicles now carry a device that is the direct result of his work.
When it became widely known a decade ago that the frequency fields from mobile phones could be used to set off bombs, it made the efforts of militant groups quicker, cheaper and more lethal.
Ending the use of mobile phones forced them to return to detonators such as tripwires and pressure plates that take time to set up and are easier to detect.
"Professors are good for something. They have a long-term body of knowledge that can be drawn in time of need," Professor Steer told The Weekend Australian. Professor Steer, 54, moved from Brisbane to North Carolina in 1983. He has since become a US citizen. He received an army grant in 2002 to develop technology to stop wireless devices being used as detonators.
MICHAEL Steer feels rightly pleased that he has saved the lives of thousands of allied soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq after his work stopped the use of mobile phones to trigger roadside bombs.
The US military establishment feels the same way about the Australian, who often spent up to 90 hours a week for several years in his laboratory to pinpoint the vulnerability.
Professor Steer, an expert on electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, has received a special civilian medal for his efforts.
Major General Nick Justice, head of the US Army's research and development command, described his work as a "game-changer of modern warfare" when he handed him the US Army Commander's Award for Public Service last week.
Much of Professor Steer's work remains classified but he told The Weekend Australian yesterday that his invention combined abstract communications theory and basic physics to prevent mobile phones being used to trigger explosives.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
.End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
Military vehicles now carry a device that is the direct result of his work.
When it became widely known a decade ago that the frequency fields from mobile phones could be used to set off bombs, it made the efforts of militant groups quicker, cheaper and more lethal.
Ending the use of mobile phones forced them to return to detonators such as tripwires and pressure plates that take time to set up and are easier to detect.
"Professors are good for something. They have a long-term body of knowledge that can be drawn in time of need," Professor Steer told The Weekend Australian. Professor Steer, 54, moved from Brisbane to North Carolina in 1983. He has since become a US citizen. He received an army grant in 2002 to develop technology to stop wireless devices being used as detonators.
