GRSS President 2015-2016
Kamal Sarabandi (S’87-M’90-SM’92-F’00-LF’2021) received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1980, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1986, and the M.S. degree in mathematics and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1989. Professor Sarabandi is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (FNAI).
He is currently the Fawwaz T. Ulaby Distinguished University Professor and Rufus S. Teesdale Endowed Professor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His research areas of interest include microwave and millimeter-wave radar remote sensing, automotive radar, Meta-materials, electromagnetic wave propagation, antennas for 5G and beyond, and bioelectromagnetics. Over the past 35 years, his research has been focused on applied electromagnetics and has made significant contributions to the science and technology of microwave and millimeter-wave radar remote sensing, antennas, communication channel modeling, metamaterials, microwave sensors, and radar systems.
He has graduated 62 Ph.D. students and supervised numerous post-doctoral fellows. He has served as the Principal Investigator on many projects sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Army Research Laboratory (ARL), National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and a large number of industries including Ford Motor Company and General Motors. He led the Center for Microelectronics and Sensors sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory under the Micro-Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) Collaborative Technology Alliance (CTA) program from 2008 to 2018. He is now leading a newly established center in Microwave Sensor Technology for autonomy.
He has published many book chapters and more than 340 papers in refereed journals on miniaturized and on-chip antennas, meta-materials, electromagnetic scattering, wireless channel modeling, random media modeling, microwave measurement techniques, radar calibration, inverse scattering problems, and microwave sensors. He has also had more than 750 papers and invited presentations at many national and international conferences and symposia on similar subjects. He is also the author of a graduate-level textbook entitled “Foundations of Applied Electromagnetics,” which is offered free to all students and researchers worldwide.
Dr. Sarabandi served as a member of the NASA Advisory Council appointed by the NASA Administrator for two consecutive terms from 2006-2010. He served as the President of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) in 2015 and 2016. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the IEEE and an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and the IEEE Sensors Journal. He is a member of the Administrative Committee of (AdCom) the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society as well as Commissions F and B of URSI and is serving as the Chair of the USNC URSI Commission F.
Dr. Sarabandi was the recipient of the Henry Russel Award from the Regent of The University of Michigan in 1997. In 1999 he received a GAAC Distinguished Lecturer Award from the German Federal Ministry for Education, Science, and Technology. He was also a recipient of the 1996 EECS Department Teaching Excellence Award. In 2005 he received the IEEE GRSS Distinguished Achievement Award and the University of Michigan Faculty Recognition Award. He was a recipient of the Best Paper Award at the 2006 Army Science Conference and the IEEE GRSS Symposium Best Paper Award in 2008 and 2017. In 2008 he was awarded a Humboldt Research Award for senior scientists from The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. He was also awarded the 2010 Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan. The IEEE Board of Directors announced him as the recipient of the 2011 IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award. Professor Sarabandi was recognized by the IEEE GRSS with its 2013 Education Award. He received the Research Excellence Award (2004), the Stephen S. Attwood Award (2017), and the Ted Kennedy Family Faculty Team Excellence Award (2108) from the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan.
In 2016 he was recognized as one of the top 50 Graduates of Sharif University of Technology since its establishment and was selected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He also received a NASA Group Achievement Award for his contributions to the NASA SMAP mission in 2017 and was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors as a Fellow in 2019. He was announced the recipient of the prestigious 2024 IEEE Electromagnetics Award in 2023. Professor Sarabandi was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, the nation’s highest professional honor accorded to an engineer, in 2021. He was also inducted as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2020. Joint papers presented by his students at several international symposia (IEEE APS’95,’97,’00,’01,’03,’05,’06,’07;’16;’19, IEEE IGARSS’99,’02,’07;’11,’14, IEEE IMS’01, USNC URSI’04,’05,’06,’10,’11,’20,’24 AMTA ’06, URSI GA ‘08,’14; Eastern Snow Conference ’16, WUWNet’19, and IEEE MTT-NEMO’19) have received best paper awards.
(Jan., 2024)
