Professor Rahmat-Samii’s Awards

Yahya Rahmat-Samii, Distinguished Professor and the Northrop Grumman Chair in Electrical Engineering/Electromagnetics, has been elected as a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). The CAE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are China’s top two think tanks that advise the government and industry on scientific and technological issues. A lifelong honor, election as a foreign member of the CAE is the highest distinction in China in the field of engineering. Foreign members are non-Chinese citizens who are distinguished and recognized for their respective fields of engineering. New members are elected biennially, by an anonymous vote among the existing members (or academicians) before it is reviewed and validated by the governing board. The professor joins an elite group of only 65 (as of 2018) other members who have been admitted as foreign members to the CAE.

Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii was awarded on May 11, 2019 the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. The award ceremony was held at the historical Ellis Island building on the ground of Ellis Island, New York. The Medals are presented each year on historic Ellis Island to a select group of individuals whose accomplishments in their field and inspired service to our nation are cause for celebration. They embody the spirit of America in their celebration of patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity. They recognize individuals who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity; all while maintaining the traditions of their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America. Since its founding in 1986, the Medal has been officially recognized by both Houses of Congress as one of our nation’s most prestigious awards. In that time NECO has honored distinguished and diverse Americans including seven US Presidents, as well as esteemed Americans such as Nobel laureates and many others. For more details click here.

S. A. Schelkunoff Transactions Prize Paper Award is given to the authors of the best paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation during the previous year. The paper titled, “CubeSat Deployable Ka-Band Mesh Reflector Antenna Development for Earth Science Missions, IEEE TAP, vol. 64, no. 6, pp. 2083-2093, 2016”, was co-authored by one Prof. Rahmat-Samii’s former PhD students, Dr. Richard Hodges, and four other colleagues from JPL, Drs. N. Chahat, E. Peral, J. Sauder and M. Thomson. The award was presented during the award ceremony, with nearly 400 attendees, at the annual IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium held in San Diego, California, July 8-13, 2017.

Distinguished Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii received the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society’s highest award, “ACES Computational Electromagnetics Award” for his “pioneering contributions in analysis, optimization, novel designs and measurements of modern antennas for diverse applications” at the 2017 ACES conference banquet held in Florence, Italy, March 29, 2017. ACES is the largest international technical society addressing all aspects of computational and numerical electromagentics techniques for solving complex antenna, scattering, radar cross section and meta material problems. The award recognizes the lifetime achievement contributions of an individual.

Congratulations to Lingnan Song, whose paper on wireless brain machine interface, was awarded the first prize at the USNC-URSI student paper competition.

Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii receives the NASA Group Achievement Award, along with his colleagues at JPL, as a member of the SMAP Antenna and Mechanical System Team, “For exceptional achievement in the development, delivery, and commissioning of the Instrument Antenna and Mechanical Systems on the Soil Moisture Active Passive mission.” The award plaque was signed by the Honorable NASA Administrator, C. F. Bolden. The photo shows an artist’s rendition of the NASA Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) satellite system that was successfully launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in January 2015 to study a critical element of the global water cycle, namely, soil moisture. An important aspect of the overall system was the RF design of the 6-m mesh offset-feed reflector antenna which was originally provided by Professor Rahmat-Samii and subsequently optimized by the JPL team. The antenna and boom assembly were built by Northrop-Grumman Astro Aerospace. The antenna and its feed assembly rotate at approximately 15 rpm creating a ground swath of about 1000 KM wide. The data being produced by this highly sophisticated instrument will assist various aspects of remote sensing of the earth from space at L-band radiometer and radar frequencies.

Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii was elected Fellow of URSI (International Union of Radio Science). URSI is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. This is a newly established Fellow grade for this very prestigious international scientific community. Professor Rahmat-Samii received this designation because of his winning the senior award of this organization, the Henry Booker Gold Medal of URSI, in 2005. He also was the elected president of the United States National Committee (USNC) of URSI and served from 2009 to 2011. In this capacity, Prof. Rahmat-Samii presented the entire US radio scientists at the URSI General Assembly held in different parts of the world. When Prof. Rahmat-Samii received the Booker Gold Medal in 2005 in New Delhi, India, it was in the presence of India’s President, Dr. Abdul kalam. Award citation reads, “For fundamental contributions to reflector antenna design and practice, near-field measurements and diagnostic techniques, handheld antennas and human interactions, genetic algorithms in electromagnetics, and the spectral theory of diffraction.” Prof. Rahmat-Samii is also a Fellow of IEEE, AMTA, ACES and Electromagnetics Academy.

Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii received the prestigious IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) John Kraus Antenna Field Award. This award honors an individual or team that has made a significant advance in antenna technology. The criteria considered by  the AP-S Awards Committee include: (a) a new or substantially improved method or device for radiating or receiving electromagnetic waves, (b) a new concept for the electromagnetic transmission, reception, or imaging of signals, an innovative use of materials or configuration of structures to achieve better electromagnetic performance, and (c) a design that yields a heretofore unknown capability. John Kraus was an internationally recognized researcher in the field of antennas and radio astronomy. Professor Rahmat-Samii was honored for his pioneering contributions in the areas of reflector antennas. The award plaque reads, “2016 John Kraus Antenna Award is presented to Yahya Rahmat-Samii for significant contributions in advancing the analysis, design and measurement of modern reflector antennas for ground and space applications”. His original antenna design concepts have been used on many NASA/JPL spacecrafts for planetary, remote sensing, radio astronomy and Cubesat missions. Professor Rahmat-Samii received the award at the IEEE AP-S International Symposium awards ceremony held in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, California, on June 29, 2016.

ACES is the premier international computational society which serves scientists and engineers in industry, academia, and government working in a wide variety of fields related but not limited to EM scattering by complex objects, advanced numerical techniques and modern antenna designs. ACES Fellows are chosen for their distinguished efforts to advance computational techniques in electromagnetics and antennas. Professor Rahmat-Samii was honored for his pioneering contributions in the areas of spectral theory of diffraction, natured inspired evolutionary optimization techniques in electromagnetics, FDTD modeling of handset antennas including human interactions, and reflector antenna synthesis and analysis.

This is the highest teaching award that UCLA gives covering all disciplines taught at UCLA with over 4,000 faculty. Only six is given every year.

This awarded for “Fundamental contributions to reflector antennas, near-field measurements and diagnostics, antenna and human interactions, and optimization algorithms in electromagnetics.”

The 2010 Award was presented to Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii of Electrical Engineering at an award ceremony held on November 5, 2010, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, California, with the citation: "In Recognition of Your Commitment and Demonstration of Excellence in Teaching". This award ceremony also coincided with the 65 years anniversary of the engineering school at UCLA. There were over 450 participants from industry, UCLA and the school alumni.

“For pioneering contributions to the design, optimization and measurement of modern ground and space-borne reflector antenna and antennas for handheld communication devices.” This is the highest award of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.

"For contributions to the design and measurement of reflector and handheld-device antennas."

"For significant contributions to electromagnetics education and for inspiring new methodologies for the design, analysis and measurement of complex antenna systems."

"For the creative development of a scientific contribution which has been determined to be significant value in the advancement of the space and aeronautical activities of NASA and is entitled: Fan Beam Patterns Radiated from a Parabolic Reflector Antenna." This award consists of a monetary award and a Certificate of Recognition.

This is one the most prestigious senior medal given once every three years at the General Assembly of URSI. URSI is an intentional organization with worldwide membership. All the members are elected by their national committees. The citation reads, "For fundamental contribution to reflector antenna design and practice, near-field measurements and diagnostic techniques, handheld antennas and human interactions, genetic algorithms in electromagnetics, and the spectral theory of diffraction". The 2005 URSI General Assembly was held in New Delhi, India. India’s president, Dr. Abdul Kalam, attended the opening ceremony and presentation of awards. This award consists of a Gold Medal and a Recognition Certificate.

For the work entitled "Advanced and /second Generation Precipitation Radar Technology Development". This award consists of a monetary award and a Recognition Statue.

Certificate, "This document certifies that Yahya Rahmat-Samii is elected as a foreign member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in the Class of the Natural Sciences."

This is one the oldest and most prestigious universities in Europe. The previous recipients were major international dignitaries.

Citation, "The 2000 AMTA Distinguished Award is presented to Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii who throughout his career exemplified and promotes the goals and objectives of AMTA. The AMTA herby cites Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii: (a) For his creative development and application of Plane-polar and Bi-polar near field measurement techniques, (b) For his major contributions in the utilization of microwave holography diagnostic and phaseless measurements of reflector and array antennas, (c) For his prolific publications in diverse area of antennas fro personal, satellite, radar and radio astronomical applications, electromagnetic theory, optimization and computational techniques, and measurements and diagnostics, (d) For his excellence and enthusiasm in educating vast number of engineers and researchers worldwide, (e) For his dedication and services to the AMTA."

Medal citation, "The IEEE awards this Third Millennium Medal to Yahya Rahmat-Samii in 2000 for Outstanding Achievements and Contributions."

Citation, "The Distinguished Alumnus Award presented to Yahya Rahmat-Samii in recognition of pioneering research activities, outstanding teaching and service to the IEEE, and a prolific publication records in the fields of applied and theoretical electromagnetics."

"The Bi-polar planar near-field measurement technique, part I: Implementation and measurement comparisons" published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Volume 42, No. 2, February 1994.

"On the reflectivity of complex mesh surfaces" published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Volume 39, No. 9, September 1991.

As cited by IEEE: "The IEEE certifies that Yahya Rahmat-Samii has been elected to the grade of Fellow for contributions to reflector antennas, near-field measurements techniques and high frequency electromagnetic diffraction."