IEEE AP-S Awards 2026

Susan C. Hagness is the Philip D. Reed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Maria Stuchly Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She is also a faculty affiliate of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a member of the UW Carbone Cancer Center. She served as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Affairs in the College of Engineering at UW-Madison between 2014 and 2017.

Dr. Hagness is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). She has held a variety of professional society appointments and elected leadership roles within the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, and the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI).

She was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) presented by the White House in 2000. In 2002, she was named one of the 100 top young innovators in science and engineering in the world by the MIT Technology Review magazine. She is also the recipient of the UW-Madison Emil Steiger Distinguished Teaching Award (2003), the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Early Career Achievement Award (2004), the URSI Issac Koga Gold Medal (2005), the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering Outstanding Paper Award (2007), the IEEE Education Society Mac E. Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award (2007), the UW System Alliant Energy Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award (2009), the Physics in Medicine and Biology Citations Prize (2011), the Sven Berggren Prize from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund, Sweden (2015), UW-Madison College of Engineering awards for teaching (2014), research (2018), and equity and diversity efforts (2021), the Women Faculty Mentoring Program Slesinger Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2017), Vice-Chancellor for Research honors including a Kellett Mid-Career award (2011) and a WARF Named Professorship (2024), and the 2026 USNC-URSI Impact Award. She has graduated 30 Ph.D. students, published over 115 peer-reviewed journal papers, and is an inventor on 13 U.S. patents.

Fernando L. Teixeira is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Ohio State University (OSU), where he is also affiliated with the ElectroScience Laboratory and the Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering.

He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign in 1999, and M.S. and B.S. degrees from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in 1991 and 1995, respectively. Prior to joining OSU, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1999-2000), and a Staff Engineer in the Department of Satellite Transmission at Embratel SA (1994-1996) and in the Brazilian Army Technological Center (1992-1994).

Dr. Teixeira research activities have spanned several areas, including computational electromagnetics, computational plasma physics, inverse scattering, reflector antennas, propagation, remote sensing, and process tomography. He has published over 230 journal papers, over 20 book chapters, and holds multiple US patents in those areas. He co-authored two books by Wiley/IEEE: Radiowave Propagation: Physics and Applications (2011) and Tropospheric and Ionospheric Effects on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (2022). He has served as the main advisor of over 25 PhD graduates.

He is a Fellow of IEEE and an Elected Member of the URSI (International Union of Radio Science) Commissions B and F. He is the recipient of several honors, including the Raj Mittra Outstanding Award from the University of Illinois, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the triennial Henry Booker Fellowship from the US National Committee of URSI, the IEEE Microwave Outstanding Young Engineer Award, and several research awards from OSU including the Lumley Research Award, the Commercialization Achievement Award, and the Harrison Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education. He is also the recipient of two Certificates of Appreciation from the NASA Earth Sciences Technology Office.

Dr. Teixeira served as Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters and IET Microwaves, Antennas, and Propagation. He was as Guest Editor for special or cluster issues of Progress in Electromagnetics Research, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, and IEEE Journal of Multiscale and Multiphysics Computational Techniques. He served as the chair of IEEE Columbus AP-S/MTT-S Joint Chapter.

Hao Xin received his PhD in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in February 2001. He obtained his BS degree, Summa Cum Laude in Physics and Mathematics from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in May 1995. He is currently a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of Physics, and a Thomas R. Brown Endowed Fellow at the University of Arizona. He was an Arizona Engineering fellow from 2013 to 2016. He joined University of Arizona since August 2005. From 2000 to 2003, he was a research scientist with the Rockwell Scientific Company. He was a Sr. Principal Multidisciplinary Engineer with Raytheon Company from 2003 to 2005. He co-founded Lunewave Inc. and has been serving as the president / chief technology officer since 2017.

His primary research interests are in the area of microwave / millimeter wave / THz antennas, devices, circuits and their applications in wireless communication and sensing systems. His recent research activities have covered a broad range of high frequency technologies, including applications of new technologies and materials in microwave and millimeter wave circuits such as electromagnetic band gap crystals and other meta-materials, carbon nano-tubes devices, solid state devices and circuits, active or semi-active antennas, and passive circuits. He has also performed leading research in 3D printing technology for electromagnetic devices and systems since 2007. He has authored over 350 referred publications and more than 20 patents in the areas of microwave and millimeter-wave technologies, random power harvesting based on ferro-fluidic nano-particles and carbon nanotube based devices. The significance of Dr. Xin’s contributions is evident in both academic and industrial domains. He has won prestigious industrial awards such as the Automotive News PACEpilot Award and multiple Army xTech competition awards. These accomplishments demonstrate not only technical novelty but also societal and economic impact.

Dr. Xin’s recognition trajectory underscores the importance of his work. He is an IEEE Fellow, an IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Lecturer, a Da Vinci Fellow and Thomas R. Brown Endowed Fellow of the University of Arizona, and the recipient of the Arizona Governor’s Innovation Award. His leadership roles include serving as Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Magazine and IEEE Journal of RFID, as well as chairing the IEEE AP S Young Professionals Committee. He has mentored 19 Ph.D. students, 11 postdoctoral researchers, and more than 100 undergraduates, ensuring the continuity of innovation in antenna engineering.

Sema Dumanli received her B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi, Ankara, Turkey, in 2006, and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Bristol, Bristol, U.K., in 2010. She worked for Toshiba Research Europe, Bristol, as a Research Engineer and a Senior Research Engineer from 2010 to 2017. She is currently an Associate Professor at Bogazici University, Istanbul. She is the founder and the director of Boğaziçi University Antennas and Propagation Research Laboratory (BOUNtenna) and Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory (AntennAlive).

Her current research interests include antenna design for implantable and wearable devices, in-body sensor design, biohybrid implants, chipless RF-ID sensors and multi-scale communications. She pioneered wireless in-body molecular sensing using biohybrid implant antennas linking electromagnetics with synthetic biology. She has authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications and holds 6 patents.

Dr. Dumanli is the recipient of the Science Academy Turkiye’s Young Scientist Award (BAGEP) 2025, the IEEE APS Donald G. Dudley Jr. Undergraduate Teaching Award 2022, and a three-time recipient of the Bogazici University Excellence in Teaching Award. She serves as the Chair of the IEEE AP/MTT/EMC/ED Turkey Joint Chapter, Vice-Chair of the IEEE AP-S Young Professionals Committee, and Associate Editor for the IEEE AP-S Digital Communications and the IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation. She is a member of the IEEE AP-S TC11 Medicine and Biology and MTT-S TC25 RFID, Wireless Sensor, and IoT Technical Committees. Dr. Dumanli also serves as a board member and Secretary of URSI Turkey, and Chair of URSI Turkey Commission K.

Last but not least she is Demir Ali's mum often referred to as "mamasimo" by him.

Giuseppe Vecchi received the Laurea and Ph.D. (Dottorato di Ricerca) degrees in electronic engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy, in 1985 and 1989, respectively, with doctoral research carried out partly at Polytechnic University (Farmingdale, NY). He was a Visiting Scientist with Polytechnic University in 1989-1990, and since 1990 he is with the Department of Electronics, Politecnico di Torino, where he has been Assistant Professor, Associate Professor (1992 – 2000), and Professor. He was a Visiting Scientist at the University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, in 1992, and has been an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1997-2011. Since 2015 he serves as the Director of the Antenna and EMC Lab (LACE) at Politecnico. Prof. Vecchi is a Fellow of the IEEE, and member of the Board of the European School of Antennas (ESOA), and a member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Standard Committee. He has been an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Chairman of the IEEE AP/MTT/ED Italian joint Chapter, and member of the IEEE-APS Educational Committee.

His current research activities concern analytical and numerical techniques for design, measurement and diagnostics of antennas and devices, medical applications, and imaging.

Haihan Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She received her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, in 2015, and her Ph. D. degree in Applied Electromagnetics from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, in 2019. She worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, from 2019 to 2023. Her research interests include antennas, ground-penetrating radar, microwave sensing, and nondestructive testing. She was the recipient of several Young Professional and Student Paper honors and awards at international conferences. She received the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Mojgan Daneshmand Grant in 2021. She was named an IEEE AP-S Young Professional Ambassador in 2024, and was recognized as an Outstanding Associate Editor for both IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters and IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation in 2025. She received the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2026. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters and IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Diego Caratelli (SMIEEE’19) was born in Latina, Italy, in 1975. He received the Laurea (summa cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering and the M.Sc. degree (summa cum laude) in applied mathematics from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, in 2000, 2004, and 2013, respectively. He also received the MicroMasters in manufacturing, finance, and data science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, in 2022, 2023, and 2025, respectively.

From 2005 to 2007, he served as a Research Fellow in the Department of Electronic Engineering at Sapienza University of Rome. From 2007 to 2013, he was a Senior Researcher with the International Research Center for Telecommunications and Radar, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. From 2015 to 2019, he was an Associate Professor with the Institute of Cybernetics, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia. In 2013, he co-founded The Antenna Company, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, where he currently serves as Chief Technology Officer / Vice-President of Engineering and is responsible for product development, program portfolio management, and technical direction of the research and development team. From 2020 to 2025, he was an Associate Professor with the Group of Electromagnetics in Wireless Telecommunications, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, where he has been a Full Professor since September 2025. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He holds 32 families of patents in antenna-related technologies and advanced computational techniques. His current research interests include the full-wave analysis and design of passive devices and antennas for satellite, wireless, and radar applications, the development of analytically based numerical techniques devoted to the modeling of wave propagation and diffraction processes, the theory of special functions for electromagnetics, the deterministic synthesis of sparse antenna arrays, and the solution of boundary-value problems for partial differential equations of mathematical physics.

Prof. Caratelli has been Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee on Antenna Arrays and Systems of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society since 2025 and is currently a member of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), the Italian Electromagnetic Society (SIEm), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was a recipient of the Young Antenna Engineer Prize at the 32nd European Space Agency Antenna Workshop and the 2010 Best Paper Award from ACES. He was a co-recipient of the Frost and Sullivan Best Practices Award for technology innovation in advanced antennas for wireless communications in 2016. He is the Lead Guest Editor of the Special Issues on Antenna Array Design for Wireless Communications and Remote Sensing of MDPI Sensors and on Advanced Antenna Array Development for mm-Wave Communications of Wiley International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, as well as of the Special Issue on Theory and Applications of Special Functions in Mathematical Physics of MDPI Symmetry. Dr. Caratelli has served as the General TPC Chair for the European Microwave Week (EuMW) in 2025.

His students and collaborators received the IEEE MTT-S Central-Southern Italy Award with Honorable Mention in 2014, as well as the TICRA Foundation Grant, and an Honorable Mention at the IEEE AP-S/URSI Symposium in 2022.

Aycan Erentok is a Senior Manager of Antenna Engineering at Tesla, where he leads antenna design and wireless system integration across its vehicle and robotics platforms. He has over 20 years of combined research and industry experience in electrically small antennas, full-lifecycle antenna development, electromagnetic integration spanning kHz to mmWave frequencies, and high-volume wireless product development.

He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arizona, where his research focused on electrically small antennas and metamaterial-based and inspired antenna concepts under the supervision of Professor Richard W. Ziolkowski.

Since joining Tesla in 2017, he has led the development of integrated antenna architectures supporting cellular, Bluetooth, GNSS, FM/DAB, UHF, and radar connectivity systems. His work focuses on body-integrated and hidden antenna solutions that improve system performance, enable industrial design flexibility, and reduce hardware complexity across Tesla vehicle and robotics platforms. His body-integrated connectivity architecture, first introduced in the Model Y program, has since become a standard antenna integration approach across Tesla vehicle platforms.

Prior to Tesla, Dr. Erentok held antenna engineering leadership roles at Intel and Nokia, where he contributed to antenna technologies deployed in tens of millions of mobile and wearable devices.

Michael H. Francis received the Bachelor’s Degree in physics in 1973 and a Master’s Degree in 1976, both from the University of Colorado. He was a research assistant at the University of Colorado from 1974 – 1980, where he studied the solar chromosphere-corona transition region.

He joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology (then the National Bureau of Standards) Antenna Metrology Group in 1980. His research has been primarily in the theory and practice of near-field measurements. He has participated in the development of probe-position correction methods at NIST for both planar and spherical near-field measurement techniques. He specializes in uncertainty analysis methods for near-field antenna measurements. He was the project leader for the NIST/Boulder team that performed the electromagnetic testing of the prototype ePassport and ePassport reader. He organized and lectured at the NIST biannual near-field short course for twenty-five years and also lectured at the Georgia Tech Near-Field short course in Boulder for many years. He has received the US Department of Commerce Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals. Mike retired from NIST in December 2016 but continues working part time as a Guest Researcher at NIST.

He is a Life Senior Member of the IEEE and a former chair of the IEEE Antenna Standards Committee (for over ten years) and a former chair of the IEEE Near-Field Antenna Working Group (when it developed the first version of the Near-Field Antenna Measurement Standard IEEE 1720). He has participated in the development of several revisions to IEEE Standards, for example, IEEE Standards 145 (Antenna Definitions), 1720 (Near-Field Antenna Measurements) and 149 (Antenna Measurements).

Mike has been the Senior Advisor to the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) Board of Directors since 2002. He received the AMTA Distinguished Service Award in 2004, the AMTA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2010 and the AMTA Honorary Life Fellow Award in 2017.

Mike has been a volunteer with Special Olympics for more than 35 years.