Deborah Estrin
J. B. Postel Chair in Computer Networking
Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Professor Deborah Estrin of the UCLA Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments holds the Jonathan B. Postel Chair in Computer Networking in recognition of her ground-breaking research.

This position was established by Dr. Postel’s former colleagues to honor and recognize his extraordinary achievements in the networking fi eld over the course of his 30-year career as a leading spokesman and architect of systematic organization in the rapidly growing online community. “Having worked with Jon Postel for many years as a researcher in his Computer Networks division, and as a member of the larger Internet research community, the Chair is particularly meaningful,” says Prof. Estrin.She is also Director of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), an NSF Science and Technology Center. CENS is a major research enterprise developing wireless sensor systems and applying this revolutionary technology to radically transform critical scientifi c and societal applications. In 2003, Estrin was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10, an annual list of young scientists conducting ground-breaking work, for her research in embedded sensor networks and its applications in environmental monitoring.

Tatsuo Itoh
Northrop Grumman Chair in Microwave and Millimeter Wave Electronics
Professor

Professor Tatsuo Itoh, Northrop Grumman Chair in Microwave and Millimeter Wave Electronics, is a pioneer in electromagnetic engineering for microwave and wireless components, and heads the UCLA EE Department Microwave Electronics Laboratory. The laboratory has been engaged in a number of research projects, ranging from theoretical investigation to practical implementation of various microwave-related topics. The laboratory is working on enhancing the capability of retrodirective array for automatic target tracking and communication. Prof. Itoh’s group has accomplished several unique capabilities previously unavailable, including a retrodirective array that can be reconfi gured from the retrodirective mode to a direct conversion receiver/transmitter. The laboratory has also spearheaded the research and development of microwave applications of metamaterial structures.

Unlike other research efforts in the world working on this subject, Prof. Itoh and his group have invented a uniquely different approach that provides low loss broadband capability. They have developed many microwave components with unusual or unique capabilities, including an electronically controlled antenna with 180 degree coverage and a variable radiation pattern, a very compact directional coupler, dual band circuits for high power high effi ciency amplifi ers, etc. A spin-off project is the development of small antennas for wireless communication (ten times smaller than conventional antennas).

Yahya Rahmat-Samii
Northrop Grumman Chair in Electromagnetics
Professor

Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii was recently selected to hold the Northrop Grumman Chair in Electromagnetics in recognition of his outstanding and diversifi ed research contributions in the areas of electromagnetics and antennas. He is a well-known international authority in his fi eld and heads the UCLA EE Department Antenna Research, Analysis and Measurement (ARAM) Laboratory. Dr. Rahmat-Samii has authored and co-authored over 720 technical journal articles and conference papers and has written 25 book chapters and three books. He has received numerous awards, including the 2007 Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.

Prof. Rahmat-Samii’s pioneering research activities cover many areas including: (a) Advanced Refl ector Antenna Designs and Compensations (in which antenna concepts and designs are utilized in many planetary space missions, soil moisture remote sensing instruments, direct broadcast satellites, and outer space missions); (b) Personal Communication Antennas including Human Interactions (ARAM is considered one of the prominent research groups in the area of communication antennas for mobile units, MIMO, wearable and implanted applications. It is among the pioneering groups to include the effects of the human biological tissues in simulation models); (c) Nature-Based Optimization Techniques in Electromagnetics (Prof. Rahmat-Samii pioneered activities in the application of the genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimizations in electromagnetics and antenna research. Many innovative and multifunction communication antennas, radar absorbing structures, and antenna array topologies have been designed using these techniques); (d) Antenna Measurements and Diagnostics Techniques (Advanced measurements and diagnostic techniques for antenna characterization have been developed). For the first time ever, the indoor bi-polar near fi eld measurement technique has been demonstrated. A microwave holography technique for antenna diagnostics including phaseless measurements has also been developed.

Kang Wang
Raytheon Chair in Physical Sciences
Professor

Professor Kang L. Wang, recently appointed as the Raytheon Chair Professor of Physical Science, received his BS (1964) degree from National Cheng Kung University and his MS (1966) and PhD (1970) degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is recognized internationally as a leader in nanotechnology. He serves on the editorial board of the Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (American Scientifi c publishers).

He also currently serves as the Director of the MARCO Focus Center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics (FENA), an interdisciplinary Research Center funded by the Semiconductor Industry Association and Department of Defense to address the need of information processing technology beyond scaled CMOS, and was named the Director of Western Institute of Nanoelectronics (WIN) — a coordinated multi-project Research Institute. WIN is funded by NRI, Intel and the State of California Current ongoing projects are aimed at spintronics for low power applications. Prof. Wang was also the founding director of the Nanoelectronics Research Facility at UCLA (established in 1989) with an infrastructure to further research in nanotechnology. In addition to these technical leadership contributions, he has provided academic leadership in engineering education. He was the Dean of Engineering from 2000 to 2002 at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prof. Wang’s research includes nanoelectronics, spintronics and new architectures for nanodevices.

Eli Yablonovitch
Northrop Grumman Chair in Optoelectronics
Adjunct Professor

Professor Eli Yablonovitch, a pioneer in the fi eld of opto-electronics and photonic bandgap research, is the Northrop Grumman Chair in Optoelectronics. He also heads the UCLA EE Department Optoelectronics Group, which is focused on the future of electronics and optoelectronics. Among the technological changes that will be forthcoming in the near future are:

• The full integration of optics and electronics in silicon chips. This is being accomplished in part by the incorporation of two-dimensional photonic crystal concepts into silicon design. An example of a three dimensional photonic crystal is in the fi gure at right, which is the electromagnetic analog of a conventional crystal for electrons.

• New paradigms for very-short-distance intra-chip communications will have to be developed before we can create nano-electronics. Current signaling schemes consume too many joules per bit, dissipating the advantage of going to the nanoscale. A new short distance communications paradigm must emerge, so that the energy effi ciency of nano-storage and nanologic will be matched by equally effi cient communications.

• After the culmination of the current semiconductor road map, quantum information processing will emerge as the dominant information processing technology of the 21st century. It is currently unclear which quantum information technology will emerge as dominant, but the Yablonovitch group is emphasizing semiconductor hosts for the qubits.