Endowed Chair Professorship Lecture and Reception

Lecture Title: Recent Research Trends in Applied Electromagnetics
Electromagnetic (EM) theory is one of the greatest achievements of physics in the 19th century. Despite its long history of development, due to its fundamental nature and broad base, research in applied electromagnetics is still vital and going strong. In recent years electromagnetics has played a major role in a wide range of disciplines, including communications, remote sensing of the environment, defense, medicine, etc., with significant societal impact. To make ideas into reality in many of these disciplines, the fundamental understanding of electromagnetic wave generation, propagation, and interaction with their environment over a wide spectrum is needed. The growth and vitality in EM research has been fueled by an increasing demand for anytime anywhere information and data, security, and global monitoring of the environment, as well as significant advancements in other related science and engineering disciplines, particularly in computers and materials. This lecture will provide an overview of recent research trends in applied electromagnetics.
Many examples of research applications will be presented, all drawn from Professor Sarabandi’s research activities. Applications of radar remote sensing in estimation of forest parameters at a global scale will be discussed; complex numerical and analytical EM scatter models for forested environments are also utilized to demonstrate detection of vehicles camouflaged under trees. In the area of energy and oil exploration the application of a two-frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to map the height of sand dunes over bedrock is shown. Utilization of the SAR technique in conjunction with planetary movements is demonstrated for calibration of Square-Kilometer uplink array of large reflectors for NASA deep-space communication system. In the area of security, seeing through walls using ultra-wideband imaging radars will be demonstrated. Efforts in antenna miniaturization using metamaterials will also be discussed.

Professor Sarabandi is Director of the Radiation Laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan. His research areas of interest include microwave and millimeter-wave radar remote sensing, meta-materials, electromagnetic wave propagation, and antenna miniaturization. Currently he is leading the Center for Microelectronics and Sensors funded by the Army Research Laboratory under the Micro-Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) Collaborative Technology Alliance (CTA) program. He received the B.S. degree in EE from Sharif University of Technology in 1980 and the M.S. degree in EE (1986), the M.S. degree in Mathematics, and the Ph.D. degree in EE from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1989.
Dr. Sarabandi is a member of NASA Advisory Council appointed by the NASA Administrator for two consecutive terms. He served as a vice president of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and is serving on the Editorial Board of Proceedings of the IEEE. He is also the founding editor of the IEEE Book Series on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Dr. Sarabandi was the recipient of the Henry Russel Award from the Regents of The University of Michigan. In 1999 he received a GAAC Distinguished Lecturer Award from the German Federal Ministry for Education, Science, and Technology. He was also a recipient of the 1996 EECS Department Teaching Excellence Award and a 2004 College of Engineering Research Excellence Award. In 2005 he received the IEEE GRSS Distinguished Achievement Award and the University of Michigan Faculty Recognition Award. He also received the Best Paper Award at the 2006 Army Science Conference and the 2008 Best Paper award at the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. In 2008 he was awarded a Humboldt Research Award from The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. In the past several years, joint papers presented by his students at a number of international symposia (IEEE APS’95,’97,’00,’01,’03,’05,’06,’07; IEEE IGARSS’99,’02,’07; IEEE IMS’01, USNC URSI’04,’05,’06, AMTA ’06, URSI GA 2008) have received best student paper awards. Dr. Sarabandi has published many book chapters and more than 180 papers in refereed journals and about 420 papers and invited presentations in many national and international conferences and symposia.