Position Statement

CANDIDATE NAME: Dr. Yahia M.M. Antar

drYMM

AFFILIATION and CONTACT

Professor and Canada Research Chair in Electromagnetic Engineering
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Royal Military College of Canada & Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada K7K7B4
Email:antar-y@rmc.ca
Website: www.ymmantar.info

Prof. Yahia M. M. Antar is a Fellow of the IEEE, Engineering Institute of Canada, the Electromagnetic Academy, and the International Union of Radio Science. He served as the Chair of CNC, URSI (1999–2008), and Commission B (1993–1999). He serves as an Associate Editor of many IEEE and IET journals and as an IEEE-APS Distinguished Lecturer. In 2002, he was awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in electromagnetic engineering, which has been renewed in 2016. In 2003, he was awarded the Royal Military College of Canada Excellence in Research Prize, and the RMCC Class of 1965 Teaching Excellence Award, in 2012.

He was elected by the URSI to the Board as the Vice President, in 2008 and 2014, and by the IEEE AP AdCom., in 2009. He was appointed as a member of the Canadian Defence Advisory Board of the Canadian Department of National Defence, in 2011. In 2012, he received the Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Governor General of Canada in recognition for his contribution to Canada. He was a recipient of the 2014 IEEE Canada RA Fessenden Silver Medal for Ground Breaking Contributions to Electromagnetics and Communications, and the 2015 IEEE Canada J. M. Ham outstanding Engineering Education Award. In 2015, he received the Royal Military College of Canada Cowan Prize for excellence in research. He was a recipient of the IEEE-AP-S the Chen-To-Tai Distinguished Educator Award, in 2017.

Prof.  Antar was elected as the president of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) for 2021.

The winning 2020 positional statement

Dear Friends and Colleagues, 

Greetings of the day! 

You may be aware that it is now time to cast your vote in the IEEE AP-S AdCom election. I solicit your support for my candidacy (Yahia M.M. Antar) for AP-S President Elect. I hope you will support me, and also help in spreading the word and soliciting support from colleagues, friends, and students.

I believe that our AP Society faces challenges on many fronts, such as:

  1. Finding new, effective, and efficient ways to enhance membership value, especially in recruiting new and young professional members,
  2. getting members more involved in the decision-making process,
  3. leveraging new developments for the benefit and growth of our Society and our members’ interests,
  4. developing technical cooperation with other affiliated IEEE Societies and other related non-IEEE societies.

Crucial to achieving these objectives will be the establishment of robust communication links with the membership and transparency in all of our activities. I believe that transparency at all levels of our Society, hard work, and involvement of the membership at various levels will help in achieving our ultimate goals of technical excellence and service to the community at large.

If elected, I therefore will work with towards achieving these goals, which will positively impact and benefit all the stakeholders in this AP community at large. My vision includes some specific plans:

  • Developing good working relationships and MOUs with societies outside of the IEEE with whom we have common and strategic interests (e.g., URSI commissions, EurAAP, AMTA)
  • Using social media to engage young professionals by providing a mechanism for networking within the Society, including learning of new job and research-position opportunities
  • Investing some of the Society’s reserves in our young professionals and students. We must make it easier and more cost effective for students to attend and participate in our conferences. Our Society officers should have more presence in related regional conferences.
  • Increasing participation of relevant industrial members in our conferences by having targeted sessions/workshops/special demonstration sessions in our conferences;
  • Establishing an effective and transparent mechanism for anyone who wants to become active on an AP-S committee to directly make their desire known to the President and to the committee chair;
  • Revising our committees to make them more effective in serving the membership. For example, I suggest restructuring the Distinguished Lecturer Program so that the DL’s can be encouraged to spend more time at the Chapters, delivering more general lectures on subjects that may be of interest to a larger number of students (even undergraduates) for the benefit of and interacting more with the Chapter members.
© 2024 Dr Yahia M M Antar