In Memoriam

Allen Katz

Dr. Allen Katz, professor of Electrical/Computer Engineering at The College of New Jersey, passed away on June 20, 2024. He was founder and president of Linearizer Technology, Inc., which now includes Linear Photonics, LLC and Linear Space Technology, LLC. He received his doctorate and baccalaureate degrees in electrical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University. Dr. Katz holds 17 patents and wrote more than 100 technical publications. He received the IEEE’s Microwave Society’s (MMT-S) Application Award in 2015 for his work in linearization, the IEEE Microwave Magazine Best Paper Award in 2010 and the William Randolph Lovelace II Award for outstanding contributions to space science... More

Vladimir G. Gelnovatch

Vladimir (Walt) G. Gelnovatch of Belmar died on March 1, 2024 and was born in Manhattan, NY, 1938. He was a Life Fellow of IEEE and served the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society as President in 1989. He was a graduate of New York University Graduate School of Engineering, obtaining an MSEE followed by course work at NYU’s doctoral program. He was an electrical engineer and worked for the U.S. Army for 40 years at Fort Monmouth as the Director of the Electric Devices Laboratory. Following retirement, he worked as an independent consultant to the Army and industry until 2008. He spent 10 years as a visiting professor of Electrical Engineering at the University... More

John W. Bandler

John W. Bandler, Professor Emeritus, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and former Dean of Engineering at McMaster University, passed away on September 28, 2023, at the age of 81 years. Prof. Bandler was an engineer, entrepreneur, innovator, researcher, artist, speaker, and author of fiction, including stage plays (see his YouTube channel for examples). He published more than 500 technical papers, pioneered space mapping, and won several awards, including both the Microwave Application and Microwave Career Awards from IEEE MTT-S. He was the founder of Optimization Systems Associates Inc. in 1983, which he sold to Hewlett-Packard in 1997. His innovations transformed engineering design optimization, especially the optimal design of RF and microwave components and circuits... More

Richard A. Sparks

Richard A. (Dick) Sparks Sr., of Nashua, NH, age 90 entered into eternal rest on December 18, 2021. Dick is survived by his loving wife of 65 years, Dorothy (Dottie), their 6 children, Barbara, Richard, Timothy, Kathleen, James, and Thomas; also survived by 8 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. Dick had a love of the sea and boating. He joined the Navy at age 18 and advanced to the rank of Seaman Petty Officer First Class. After being honorably discharged, Dick attended college graduating Cum Laude in 1958, with a BA in Physics and majors in Chemistry and Mathematics. He met Dottie at their church and married in 1956. In the summer of 1958 they, along... More

Ferdo Ivanek

Ferdo Ivanek, life fellow of the IEEE, passed away on 2 October, 2021 at the age of 98. He was married to Vojka who passed away in 2010 and has two sons Ivan and Željko. Vojka was project manager at Stanford University for decades and accompanied Ferdo to many of the IEEE International Microwave Symposia throughout the years. Ferdo Ivanek received the Dipl. Ing. and Dr. techn. Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University in Vienna, Austria. Until 1967 he worked in Yugoslavia on the introduction of microwave radio systems, on radio equipment design and manufacturing start-up. From 1959-1962, he was on leave of absence for research at the Microwave Laboratory, Stanford University. In... More

Vittorio Rizzoli

Professor Vittorio Rizzoli was born January 26, 1949 and  passed away on August 25, 2021. He earned his degree in Electronic Engineering in 1971 at the University of Bologna, Italy. He worked at the Hewlett Packard Company (USA) prior to joining the University of Bologna as a Research Assistant teaching a course on microwave integrated circuits. He was elevated to Full Professor in Electromagnetic Fields at the University of Bologna in 1980. His main focus was on modern CAD techniques as applied to electromagnetic (EM) design of microwave and millimeter-wave integrated circuits. This work afforded him the opportunity to author or co-author more than 220 technical papers. Many of these have been published in refereed... More

Tatsuo Itoh

Professor Tatsuo Itoh was born May 5, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan, and passed away on 4 March 2021. He had an incredible career and his list of accomplishments is very extensive. He earned his various degrees at several venues, starting with the Yokohama National University. After spending some time in industry, at NEC and Olympus;he went on to teaching at many places in the US. They include universities in Kentucky, Illinois, California, Texas and his latest being UCLA. During his career he demonstrated the design of many millimeter wave components. Some used planar transmission lines, quasi-optical analysis techniques, quasi-optical receiver elements and antennas. He served in many capacities in the IEEE MTT-S Society such as... More