Fifty Years of Research in Electromagnetics: A Voyage Back in Time

Abstract

This chapter retraces 50 years of personal research in microwaves, electromagnetic fields, and computational electromagnetics from an autobiographical perspective. It begins with early work on microwave ferrites at the RWTH Aachen and the University of Grenoble during the 1960s, and continues with theoretical and experimental research on planar and quasi-planar microwave circuits during the 1970s at the University of Ottawa. In the 1980s, my research focus began to shift progressively toward computational electromagnetics, and in the early 1990s at the University of Victoria it became the central theme of my work. Finally, the first decade of the second millennium brought novel materials with revolutionary properties and potential for innovative devices, requiring sophisticated techniques for modeling, measurement, and manufacturing at the nanometer scale. The activities and contributions of my research team during the past 50 years at the Universities of Aachen (Germany), Grenoble (France), Ottawa and Victoria (Canada), and finally at the A-STAR Institute of High-Performance Computing (Singapore), form the subject of this personal account.