Kamal Sarabandi-The Daily Ledger

Kamal Sarabandi (Persian: کمال سرابندی) is an Iranian-American scientist and the Fawwaz T. Ulaby Distinguished University Professor of EECS and the Rufus S. Teesdale endowed Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he teaches and conducts research on the science and technology of microwave and millimeter wave radar remote sensing, wireless technology, electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering, metamaterials, antenna miniaturization, and nano antennas.

Education

Sarabandi received the Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1980, a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1986, and a Master of Science degrees in applied mathematics and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in electrical engineering from The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1989.

Kamal Sarabandi

Career and service

Professor Kamal Sarabandi has had a distinguished and exemplary career as an educator and entrepreneur, focusing on the field of applied electromagnetic and microwave remote sensing. He is known for his seminal contributions to the science and technology of radar remote sensing for imaging the Earth's surface. His pioneering work on design of polarimetric radars, development of sophisticated electromagnetic scattering models for natural targets and their inverse solutions for monitoring vegetation, soil moisture, and snow has had important implications today for better understanding of processes that lead to global warming. He was the first to establish the connections between the incoherent and coherent domains of radar polarimetry. Sarabandi served as Director of the Michigan Radiation Laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan (2000-2021). The Radiation Laboratory in its current form was established in 1952 and has played a pivotal role in the development and advancement of the field of Applied Electromagnetic for more than six decades. He is a prolific and world renown researcher who has published more than a 1000 impactful refereed journal and conference papers with high citation numbers and 34 best paper awards. Sarabandi served as a member of NASA Advisory Council appointed by NASA Administrator for two consecutive terms from 2006 to 2010.

Kamal Sarabandi

Professor Sarabandi served as 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 Commissions F and B of URSI and served as the Chair of the USNC/URSI Commission F (2018-2021). He is also a co-founder of EMAG Technologies, a high-tech company, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Kamal Sarabandi

Sarabandi is a member of the Science Team for NASA Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP). This is an orbiting observatory (a polar orbit around Earth) that measures the amount of water in the top 5 cm (2 inches) of soil everywhere on Earth's surface.