Paul D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award

Established 1994

Paul D. Coleman

Paul Coleman received the B.A. degree under Paul J. Ovrebo in 1940 from Susquehanna University, the M.S. degree in physics under D. Rank in 1942 from Penn State University, and the PhD in physics under J. C. Slater from MIT in 1951. In 1978 he received an honorary Dr.Sc. degree from Susquehanna University.

From 1942 to 1952 he was with the U.S. Air Force at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, and with the Cambridge Air Research Center where he was engaged in countermeasures, aircraft antenna, broad band impedance matching, and millimeter waves, for which he received a Meritorious Civilian Award from General T. Spatz. His PhD thesis was on the generation of microwaves via megavolt electronics using a magnetic wiggler.

In 1951 he came to the University of Illinois as a professor of electrical engineering and established the Electro-Physics Laboratory. His research interests have been in megavolt electronics, electron beam interaction, harmonic generation, millimeter and sub millimeter wave techniques, quantum electronics, molecular and chemical lasers, non linear optics, far infrared optical properties of materials, resonant tunneling, pyroelectric and MOM detectors, and Landau level semiconductor lasers.

Dr. Coleman is a Fellow of APS, IRE, OSA and a member of AAAS. He was on the founding committee of IEEE MTT in 1952, chairman of IEEE Quantum Electronics Council, Associated Editor of IEEE-JQE, member of the Hoover Medal Board of Award, and treasurer of IEEE DRC for over twenty years. He received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984. He has directed nearly fifty PhD and seventy-five M.S. degrees in EE and physics and published one hundred twenty papers in referee journals. Dr. Coleman became an emeritus professor of ECE in 1988 but is still active in graduate research. Dr. Coleman also won the IEEE-MTT Distinguished Educator Award in 1994.

DESCRIPTION:

The P. D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award has been established by his students and colleagues in honor of his outstanding mentoring of graduate students while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The award is presented to a  doctoral student who has demonstrated excellence in research in Dr. Coleman's field of interest.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. The award recipient shall be enrolled in the PhD program of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
2. The award recipient shall have successfully passed his or her qualifying exam.
3. The award recipient shall have demonstrated excellence in research in the areas of Electromagnetics or Physical and Quantum Electronics.

APPLICATIONS:

The online application forms will be advertised on My.ECE. A complete application should consist of the student’s resume, his/her list of publications, and 2 letters of recommendation (one from the research adviser).

SELECTION PROCESS:

All applications for the Award will be judged by the ECE Graduate Fellowship Committee based on the above criteria.

AWARD:

The recipient(s) will be recognized during an annual Student Awards Banquet. All student recipients are featured on the second floor of the ECE Building's Student Honors Wall.

Past Recipients of the Award