Victor Lubecke

Victor M. Lubecke received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He was previously with Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, where his research focused on remote sensing technologies for biomedical and industrial applications, and on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and 3-D wafer-scale integration technologies for wireless and optical communications. Before that he was with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Institute for Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Japan, where his research involved terahertz and MEMS receiver technologies for space remote sensing and communications applications.

Prof. Lubecke is an IEEE Fellow, and an emeritus Distinguished Microwave Lecturer of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT) Society. He has served as Topic Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, as Vice Chair of the 2017 IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS), and as a member of the MTT Technical Committees for Terahertz Technology and Applications and for Biological Effects and Medical Applications. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed research articles, holds 8 U.S. patents, and co-founded two high-tech start-up companies. His current research interests include remote sensing, biomedical sensors, MEMS, heterogeneous integration, and microwave/terahertz radio.

When wireless signals scatter off a human body, the reflected signal is modulated by body motion and thus encoded with valuable information related to physiology or activity. The collection of such data constitutes remote sensing, whether it involves the passive reflection of ambient electromagnetic signals or the use of an active interrogation signal. As with communications, various wavelengths offer unique measures and modes of operation. While current commercial applications are mostly limited to traffic and occupancy monitoring, such sensing can expand to disrupt the fields of health and security monitoring and impact society on a vast level, particularly as suitable higher frequency technology matures.