Fawwaz T. Ulaby

Since joining the University of Michigan faculty in 1984, Professor Ulaby has directed numerous interdisciplinary, NASA-funded projects aimed at the development of high-resolution satellite radar sensors for mapping Earth’s terrestrial environment. He also served as the founding director of the NASA-funded Center for Space Terahertz Technology, whose research was aimed at the development of microelectronic devices and circuits that operate at wavelengths between the infrared and the microwave regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. SUbsequently, Professor Ulaby served a seven-year term as the University of Michigan’s vice president for research, from 1999-2005. Over his academic career, he has supervised more than 100 talented graduate students.

Professor Ulaby is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and he serves on several international scientific boards and commissions.

In recognition for his outstanding teaching and distinguished scholarship, he has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards from universities, government agencies, and scientific organizations. Among them are the NASA Achievement Award (1990), the 2002 William Pecora Award, a joint recognition by NASA and the Department of the Interior, and the Distinguished FEA Alumni Award from the American University of Beirut (2006). In 2006, and again in 2012 and 2018, he was selected 'Professor of the Year,' by the students in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He was also awarded, in 2008, the Thomas Edison Medal, the oldest and most coveted medal in the field of electrical and computer engineering in the United States, and he was awarded the IEEE Education Medal in 2012.