Samii, Yahya-Rahmat

1999 Distinguished Alumni Award

To Yahya Rahmat-Smaii in recognition of pioneering research activities, outstanding teaching and service to the IEEE, and prolific publication record in the fields of applied and theoretical electromagnetics.

Yahya Rahmat-Samii (MSEE ’72, PhD ’75) received his award for pioneering research activities, outstanding teaching and service to the IEEE, and a prolific publishing record in the fields of applied and theoretical electromagnetics. While at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (1978-1988), Rahmat-Samii was one of the inventors of the plane-polar near-field measurement technique used to measure the performance of the Galileo spacecraft antenna. He also helped develop the microwave holographic diagnostic technique used to improve the performance of NASA's Deep Space Network Antennas. Since 1988, Rahmat-Samii has been an electrical engineering professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. His current research interests include reflector antenna analysis design, advanced antenna measurement, antennas for wireless communications applications, and genetic algorithms for electromagnetics.