Recipients of the 2024 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society C. J. Reddy Travel Grant for Graduate Students

The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) C. J. Reddy Travel Grant for Graduate Students aims to help graduate students attend the annual IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and further their research work in the field of antennas and propagation.

This year for the IEEE AP-S/URSI 2024 Florence, we are pleased to announce that the following recipients have been selected by the IEEE AP-S Education Committee (coordinated by Frankie Chiu and Eng Leong Tan). They are sorted according to their last names as below:

Stefanos Bakirtzis has been awarded the grant to further his research and to present his paper entitled "Towards Physics-Informed Graph Neural Network-Based Computational Electromagnetics". He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree with his advisor Ian Wassell at the University of Cambridge.

Hui Chen has been awarded the grant to further her research and to present her paper entitled “An Antenna Array with High Detection Capability for Electromagnetic Stroke Diagnostic Systems”. She is currently pursuing her degree with her advisor Kwai Man Luk at City University of Hong Kong.

Samuel Elkin has been awarded the grant to further his research and to present his paper entitled “Hybrid Numerical Modeling Method for Josephson Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers”. He is currently pursuing his degree with his advisor Thomas Roth at Purdue University.

Mingsai Huan has been awarded the grant to further his research and to present his paper entitled "Non-uniform Planar MIMO Array Optimization Criterion in Wavenumber Domain for Aliasing-free Wideband Near-Field 3D Imaging". He is currently pursuing his degree with his advisor Junli Liang at Northwestern Polytechnical University, and is jointly trained at A*STAR I2R in Singapore under the co-supervision of Yugang Ma.

Patinavalasa Megh Sainadh has been awarded the grant to further his research and to present his paper entitled “A Polarization-Insensitive Reconfigurable Frequency Selective Surface Switching and Tuning among Absorption, Transmission, and Reflection”. He is currently pursuing his degree with his advisor, Saptarshi Ghosh, at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore.

Shang-Yi Sun has been awarded the grant to further his research and to present his paper entitled “Characteristic-Mode-Guided Suppression of Cross-Band Scattering and Coupling in Antenna Array”. He is currently pursuing his degree with his advisor Can Ding at University of Technology Sydney.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Fellowship Program

Description

The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) allocated $240,000 for its Fellowship Program in 2024. The program aim is to promote areas of interest to IEEE AP-S among graduate students and postdoctoral fellows worldwide to facilitate their career pursuit in these areas. Researchers affiliated with an academic institute and mentored by a faculty or industry supervisor for the academic year 2024-2025 are invited to apply for support of their work on a proposed research project. The AP-S is committed to demographic, geographic, and disciplinary diversity in the selection of high merit applications.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply:

Both the applicant and their supervisor must be members of the IEEE AP-S.
Students must be enrolled/admitted to a full-time Master’s or Doctoral degree program at an accredited institution for the year 2024-2025.
Postdoctoral applicants must hold a full-time appointment at an accredited institution for the academic year 2024-2025.
Former APSF student recipients may apply again only as higher degree students (or postdoctoral fellows).
A supervisor is not allowed to mentor more than one APSF applicant during 2024-2025.
The IEEE AP-S Fellowship (APSF) may be held in conjunction with IEEE AP-S travel grants and other IEEE awards.

Value of Awards

APSF value is US$5,000 to support research project specified in application.
APSF will be paid directly to the recipient (student or postdoctoral fellow).

Timeframe

Project must continue for at least two semesters (26 academic weeks or longer) during the academic year 2024-2025.
Project may commence on any date agreeable to both the student and the supervisor.
APSF recipients are expected to remain active and engaged members of IEEE AP-S for 3 years from the date of award.

Project Site

Students and postdoctoral fellows: accredited universities worldwide.
Postdoctoral fellows only: Companies having a line of business in the IEEE AP-S areas of interests (listed below).

Advising Process

Academia and industry supervisors must be individuals who are authorized by the university or company to conduct direct independent supervision of the student or postdoctoral fellow.

Research Areas of Interest

Relevant areas include: antennas, including analysis, design, development, measurement, and testing; electromagnetic theory, including analytical and numerical modeling of radiation and scattering, propagation, interaction of electromagnetic waves with discrete and continuous media; and applications and systems pertinent to antennas, propagation, and sensing, such as applied optics, millimeter- and sub-millimeter-wave techniques, antenna signal processing and control, radio astronomy, geoscience, terrestrial and space-based communication, including wireless, mobile, satellite, and telecommunications, bio-EM imaging and techniques.

Application Process

Applications will include a single pdf file, composed of the following items:
- Application form, including the applicant and advisor names, the institute information, and the research topic.
- Evidence of active IEEE AP-S membership in 2024 (screenshot from ieee.org, membership card, etc.)
- Applicant Curriculum Vitae, separately listing: previous education and current academic status, relevant research/work experience and projects, journal publications, conference publication, distinctions and awards.
- Research statement describing in detail the project, applicant’s aptitude for successfully carrying the project, and their intent to pursue a career in topics of interest to the IEEE AP-S. The statement should be in single column format, 10pt font size, no longer than 2 pages including figures, with up to 1 additional page for a reference list.
- Students within the first 2 years of their graduate program must attach also university transcripts.
Applications will be accompanied by a single pdf file by the advisor, sent confidentially, including:
- Advisor filled applicant evaluation form.
- Advisor letter of endorsement that confirms the student’s eligibility to apply.
The applicants are responsible to verify their eligibility and that all material is submitted before the deadline. Missing items will result in significant reduction in score. Missing advisor file will automatically disqualify the application.
Applications and advisor support letters must be submitted, separately, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., with subject lines “APSF24: Applicant Surname, First Name – Application” or “APSF24: Applicant Surname, First Name – Evaluation”.

Application Evaluation

To applications will be reviewed and assigned scores based on the following criteria:

Quality and relevance to the AP-S of the research statement.
Applicant’s aptitude for the proposed research, as reflected from their track record and experience.
Advisor’s evaluation and endorsement letter.
Academic standing of the applicant, as reflected from their CV (and transcripts, where relevant).

Deadline

All material must be submitted before the deadline: June 1, 2024.

Notification of Results

IEEE AP-S will send an award decision to each applicant after the screening process is completed.

APSF Payment

The selected applicants will receive APSF payment in one installment of US$5000. AP-S will require students to fill out and submit forms W8/9 to process the payments.

Travel Allowances

APSF is not intended for covering travel expenses.

For More Information

Please contact Prof. Yaniv Brick at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Excellence Spotlight: Meet our top Reviewers of 2023

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagations (IEEE TAP) is regarded as the flagship publication of the AP-S, esteemed for its scientific excellence, novelty, and rigor. The standing of the journal in the antennas and propagation community is a tribute to the continued support and invaluable contribution of our reviewers, whose commitment to providing rigorous expert feedback is pivotal for solidifying trust with TAP’s authors and readers and further cultivating the culture of excellence within our community.

Each year, at TAP we recognize our best-performing reviewers who contribute with their professionalism, dedication, and high scientific standards in ensuring the novelty, quality, and impact of published content. In this section, we highlight a line-up of our top reviewers among the 2023 best-performing ones, acknowledging and appreciating their invaluable role in ensuring an ethical, rigorous, and timely editorial procedure.

We invite you to celebrate their inspirational commitment with us by exploring their expertise, technical depth, and scholarly excellence.

Tim W. C. Brown

University of Surrey, UK

Tim W. C. Brown (Senior Member, IEEE) is a chartered engineer and academic with key interests focusing on intelligent multiple antennas and their interaction with the radio environment. He received the B.Eng. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Surrey, Guildford, U.K., in 1999 followed by the Ph.D. degree focusing on antenna diversity for mobile terminals in 2004. From 2004 to 2006, he was a Post-Doctoral Researcher with Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.

Since 2007 he has returned to the University of Surrey as an academic where he is currently an Associate Professor in RF antennas, and propagation. Since 2018, he has also been Editor in Chief of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) journal of Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation while he has also served as an associate editor to the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters from 2016 to 2018.

His most substantial research contributions or interests include antennas and propagation for mobile and satellite communications, antennas for multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO), low electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure mobile terminals. He has published seminal works in the Royal Society Proceedings for the new concept of Linear Angular Momentum Multiplexing (LAMM), which is a promising solution to ensuring seamless gigabit connectivity from trackside to train.

Peiqin Liu

National University of Singapore, Singapore

Peiqin Liu (Member, IEEE) received the B.E. degrees from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, in 2014, and the Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2019. Since September 2019, he has been with National University of Singapore, where he is a Research Fellow. His current research interests include metamaterial and antenna theory, particularly in novel metasurfaces with deep-learning techniques.

Dr. Liu has authored and co-authored more than 30 technical papers published in international journals and conferences and holds 5 granted Chinese patents. He is the recipient of Young Antenna Scientist Award of 2023 Singapore Workshop on Antennas (SWA); Top Reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation in 2022 and 2023; Outstanding Reviewer of IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagation Letters in 2023 (the 4th out of 1263); Outstanding Student Paper Award of 2018 Cross Strait Quad-Regional Radio Science and Wireless Technology Conference (CSQRWC); the Best Student Paper Award of 2017 Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP); the Best Student Paper Award of 2017 National Conference on Antennas (NCANT).

Dr. Liu has been serving on the IEEE Singapore RFID Chapter since 2022, where he serves as the vice chair in 2024. He has been involved in multiple international events as co-chair and technical program committee member. He has delivered 2 invited speeches, 2 short courses, as well as organized 1 special session, and 1 workshop at international academic events.

Shanpu Shen

University of Liverpool, UK

Shanpu Shen (Senior Member, IEEE) received the bachelor’s degree in communication engineering from the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, in 2013, and the Ph.D. degree in electronic and computer engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong, in 2017.

He was a Visiting Ph.D. Student with the Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, in 2016. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with HKUST from 2017 to 2018 and a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with the Communications and Signal Processing Group, Imperial College London, London, U.K., from 2018 to 2020. He was a Research Assistant Professor with the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, HKUST, from 2020 to 2023. He is currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Liverpool, U.K.

His current research interests include RF energy harvesting, wireless power transfer, reconfigurable intelligent surface, Internet-of-Things, MIMO systems, and antenna design and optimization. He is the 2024 IEEE AP-S Young Professional Ambassador.

Son Xuat Ta

Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam

SON XUAT TA received the B.Sc. (Eng.) degree in electronics and telecommunications from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam in August 2008, and received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Ajou University, Korea in February 2016. March, 2016 – February, 2017, he was a post-doctoral research fellow with Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University. March, 2017 – August, 2017, he was with the Division of Computational Physics, Institute for Computational Science, and the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. September 2017 – present, he works as a lecturer at School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam.

His research interests include antennas, metamaterials, metasurfaces, metamaterial-based antennas, metasurface-inspired antennas, circularly polarized antennas, and millimeter-wave antennas. He has authored and co-authored over 120 technical-journal and conference papers. He has served as a reviewer for over 15 scientific journals. He has been selected as a Top Reviewer for IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION in 2020-2023.