John McWhirter has made important contributions to applied mathematics, electronic engineering and computer science — in particular, to digital signal processing. He is renowned for his research on adaptive filtering and beamforming, parallel processing and systolic-array design, including the ‘McWhirter’ algorithm. He has initiated at least three main areas of systolic-array development, bit-level arrays, arrays operating at word level and parallel-processing structures for recursive filtering.
His most recent work has led to seminal algorithms for polynomial matrix factorisation and spawned a new field of research with application to broadband adaptive beamforming and multichannel communications. He has taken a leading role in promoting the subject of mathematics in signal processing and is a prominent member of both communities. He served as President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in 2002 and 2003.
Professional position
- Visiting Professor of Electrical Engineering, Queen's University Belfast
Subject groups
- Engineering
Computer engineering (including software), Communications incl information theory, Engineering, electronics
- Mathematics
Applied mathematics and theoretical physics
