Ahmad T. Abawi was born on November 5, 1957, in Kabul, Afghanistan. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and the B.S. degree physics from the University of California at Irvine in 1983 and 1984, respectively, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of California at San Diego in 1988 and 1993, respectively.
From 1993 to 1995, he was a Post-Doctoral Physicist at the Marine Physical Laboratory of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, where he worked on propagation modeling and signal processing. Between 1995 and 1997, he worked at the Arete Engineering Technologies Corporation, San Diego, CA, where his work involved sonar data analysis, signal processing, and sonar cross-section analysis. Since 1997, he has been working at the SPAWAR Systems Center, San Diego, where his current work is on array signal processing, matched-field processing, data analysis, and propagation modeling. His other research interests include scattering theory and orbital mechanics.