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Allen Taflove Awarded 2014 IEEE Electromagnetics Award

Electrical engineering professor pioneered new solutions to solving Maxwell’s equations

 

Allen Taflove, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been awarded the 2014 IEEE Electromagnetics Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Allen TafloveThe prestigious award — sponsored by IEEE Antennas and Propagation, Electromagnetic Compatibility, IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques, and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Societies — is presented to an individual for outstanding contributions to the field of electromagnetics through theory, application, or education.

Taflove was cited “for contributions to the development and application of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) solutions of Maxwell’s equations across the electromagnetic spectrum.”

An alumnus of McCormick and a member of its faculty since 1984, Taflove pioneered FDTD computational solutions, a method for solving fundamental rules of nature that govern nonquantum interactions of electric charges, currents, and electromagnetic waves. 

Overlooked for many years, Taflove’s methods are now used worldwide and have led to significant advances in nanophotonics, radar transmission, wireless communications, and other areas. His book, Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain, ranks seventh on the all-time list of the most-cited books in physics. In 2010, Taflove was cited in an article in the prestigious Nature Milestones: Photons as one of the two principal pioneers of computational solutions of Maxwell’s equations.  

IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. The organization’s awards pay tribute to technical professionals whose exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions have made a lasting impact on technology, society, and the engineering profession.

Read more about Taflove’s research.