Faculty Highlight: Professors M. C. Frank Chang and Yahya Rahmat-Samii
UCLA Electrical Engineering
Professors M. C. Frank Chang and
Yahya Rahmat-Samii have
been elected into the National Academy of Engineering
(NAE), the highest professional
distinction accorded
to an American engineer. Professor Chang was honored for
the development and commercialization of GaAs power amplifiers and integrated circuits, and Professor Rahmat-Samii was honored for his
contributions to the design and measurement of reflector and handheld-device antennas. They are both
now among a select 2,227 academy members nationwide, along with 194 foreign associates.
Professor M. C. Frank Chang
Professor Mau-Chung Frank Chang received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan,
in 1979. He is Professor and Director of the High Speed Electronics Laboratory at UCLA Electrical Engineering. Before joining UCLA,
he was the Assistant Director of the High Speed Electronics Laboratory at the Rockwell Science Center (1983-1997),
Thousand Oaks, California. During that period of time, he developed and transferred the AlGaAs/GaAs HBT technology from the research
laboratory to the production line (Conexant Systems). The HBT production has now grown into a multi-billion dollar business worldwide.
His research group has demonstrated the world's first source synchronous
CDMA bus interface with reconfigurable multichip access capability. He also led the first demonstration of a 2Gsps 6bit ADC in CMOS,
a 1Gsps 11bit THA in SiGe and a dual mode (CDMA/AMPS) power amplifier in SiGe for wireless handset applications.
He was named an IEEE Fellow in 1996 for his contributions in ultra-high speed HBT integrated circuit development,
and was honored with the IEEE David Sarnoff Award in 2006.
Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii
Professor Rahmat-Samii received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign. Before joining UCLA in 1989, he was
a Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. He served as Chair of UCLA's Electrical Engineering Department from April 2000 through
June 2005. Since 2007, he has been the holder of the Northrop
Grumman Chair in Electromagnetics at UCLA.
Prof. Rahmat-Samii has had pioneering research contributions in diverse
areas of electromagnetics, antennas, measurement and
diagnostics techniques, numerical and asymptotic methods,
satellite and personal communications, antennas for
remote sensing and astronomical applications, human/antenna
interactions, frequency selective surfaces, electromagnetic
and photonic band gap structures and the applications
of the genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization.
Faculty Highlight: Professor Asad Abidi
UCLA Electrical Engineering
Professor Asad Abidi has
been elected into the National Academy of Engineering
(NAE), the highest professional
distinction accorded
to an American engineer. He
has also been selected to receive
the 2008 IEEE Donald
O. Pederson Award in Solid
State Circuits. The National Academy of Engineering Award Professor Asad Abidi was honored for his fundamental contributions
to the development of
integrated circuits for wireless
communication in metal–oxide–
semiconductor (CMOS)
technology used to fabricate
microprocessors and digital signal processors, Professor
Abidi is now among a select 2,217 members nationwide,
along with 188 Foreign associates.
Academy membership honors those who have made
outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice,
or education. Established in 1964, the NAE shares
responsibility with the National Academy of Sciences to
advise the federal government on questions of policy in
science and technology.
“I feel the key importance of my election into the Academy
is that it highlights the ground breaking work my
colleagues at UCLA electrical engineering and I have undertaken
over the last two decades in CMOS radios,”
Professor Abidi remarks. “It is this research that has really
helped to defi ne a new industry, and that is my greatest
reward. Every mass-produced wireless communication
device today is in CMOS.”
Abidi has been an electrical engineering faculty member
at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science since 1985,. Abidi’s research career has
focused on research in CMOS RF design, high speed analog
integrated circuit design, data conversion, and other
techniques of analog signal processing. His work has led
to new architectures in modern wireless devices, and a
new way of designing the circuits that enable them.
“The work I conducted with my colleagues has always had
the overarching theme of industry impact. We did not try
to keep the work under wraps,” Abidi says. “We strove to
innovate so that we could share the knowledge with the
rest of the world. I’m proud to have been part of this philosophy
of research.”
The IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid
State Circuits Shortly after receiving the NAE Award,
Professor Abidi was selected by the IEEE Board of Directors
to receive the prestigious 2008 IEEE Donald O. Pederson
Award in Solid-State Circuits for his “pioneering and
sustained contributions in the development of RF-CMOS.”
This award was established by the IEEE Board of Directors
in 1987 to honor an individual, or team of up to three, for
outstanding contributions to solid-state circuits, as exemplifi
ed by benefi t to society, enhancement to technology, and
professional leadership. This is an IEEE-wide award and the
highest in the fi eld.
With this recognition and the NAE Award, Professor Abidi
joins a distinguished list of “Who’s Who” in the field. With
his hard work and well-earned reputation, he has helped
our department build a fi rst-rate circuits and devices program,
one that is recognized and respected worldwide.
List of current NAE or NAS members in the department.
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