Legends of Electromagnetics: Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii

Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii is an Iranian-born American engineer, scientist, educator, author, and Distinguished Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).Yahya Rahmat-Samii is a holder of the Northrop-Grumman Chair in electromagnetics, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, the winner of the 2011 IEEE Electromagnetics Field Award, and the Former Chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA. He was a Senior Research Scientist with the Caltech/NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was the 1995 President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and 2009–2011 President of the United States National Committee (USNC) of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). He has also served as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer presenting lectures internationally. He has authored or coauthored more than 1100 technical journal and conference papers and has written over 40 book chapters and seven books. He has more than 20 cover-page IEEE publication articles. His research contributions cover diverse areas of modern electromagnetics and antennas spanning from small medical antennas to large space deployable antennas. His research interests include electromagnetics, antennas, measurements and diagnostics techniques, numerical and asymptotic methods, satellite and personal communications, human/antenna interactions and medical application, meta-materials and periodic structures, and nature inspired optimization algorithms. Dr. Rahmat-Samii is a fellow of IEEE, AMTA, ACES, EMA, and URSI. He was a recipient of the Henry Booker Award from URSI, in 1984, which is given triennially to the most outstanding young radio scientist in North America, the Best Application Paper Prize Award (Wheeler Award) of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation in 1992 and 1995, the University of Illinois ECE Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and the AMTA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2000. In 2001, he received an Honorary Doctorate Causa from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. (Watch the ceremony here: ). He received the 2002 Technical Excellence Award from JPL, the 2005 URSI Booker Gold Medal presented at the URSI General Assembly, the 2007 IEEE Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award, the 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, the 2010 UCLA School of Engineering Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award, and the 2011 campus-wide UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award. He was also a recipient of the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award from The Engineers Council in 2015, the John Kraus Antenna Award of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and the NASA Group Achievement Award in 2016, the ACES Computational Electromagnetics Award and the IEEE Antennas and Propagation S. A. Schelkunoff Best Transactions Prize Paper Award in 2017, and the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2019. The medals are awarded annually to a group of distinguished U.S. citizens who exemplify a life dedicated to community service. These are individuals who preserve and celebrate the history, traditions, and values of their ancestry while exemplifying the values of the American way of life and are dedicated to creating a better world. He is the recipient of 2020 AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Best Paper Award and 2022 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Harrington-Mittra Award in Computational Electromagnetics and 2023 National Academy of Sciences USNC-URSI Outstanding Educator Award. Two of his IEEE Antennas and Propagation Transaction Papers spanning the era of 2001 to 2011 received the highest citations among all the papers published in that decadal period. He is the Designer of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society logo which is displayed on all IEEE AP-S publications. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society had the pleasure to record this interview with Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii in which he discusses his early interest in STEM, and his research career. Read his publications here: