Eric Michielssen receives IEEE AP-S Field Award in Computational Electromagnetics

Eric Michielssen received the 2020 IEEE AP-S Harrington-Mittra Computational Electromagnetics Award “In recognition of being an outstanding computational scientist, as well as a mentor and role model for the next generation of faculty members.”

This Field Award for outstanding achievement in Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) is presented by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S).

Michielssen, the Louise Ganiard Johnson Professor of Engineering, specializes in the development of fast and efficient algorithms for solving Maxwell’s equations, and their implementation on powerful parallel computers. He has applied his techniques to the characterization of semiconductor and microelectronic devices, photonic crystals and optical phenomena, aircraft scattering, antennas and wireless propagation, and more.

Among his contributions to the field of CEM, he developed the first genetic algorithm-based electromagnetic optimization schemes, which have been incorporated into several academic and industry-strength electromagnetic optimization engines.

He also developed the first “fast” time domain integral equation (TDIE) solvers which were fast enough to be applied to the analysis of real-world problems. Previously, he received the 2014 IEEE AP-S Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award, and the 2018 IEEE AP-S Sergei A. Schelkunoff Transactions Prize Paper Award for the paper, “A Butterfly-Based Direct Integral-Equation Solver Using Hierarchical LU Factorization for Analyzing Scattering From Electrically Large Conducting Objects” [read more].

Michielssen has published over 200 journal papers and over 500 conference papers. Sixteen of his former students and postdocs now hold faculty positions in the U.S. and abroad.

Michielssen served as founding Director of the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering. Later, as Associate Vice President for Advanced Research Computing from 2013-2018, he helped develop several new degree programs in computational and data science, and brought together faculty from disparate disciplines to tackle interdisciplinary problems using advanced computational methods.

The award was presented at the 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting, held virtually July 5-10, 2020.