The December issue of the IEEE Microwave Magazine is out! Tthe focus of this month’s issue is one of the MTT-S flagship conferences, the 2026 edition of Radio and Wireless Week (RWW2026). This annual conference, always held in January in (hopefully) a warmer climate during the height of North American winter, is composed of five sub-conferences and one or more co-located conferences that span the technical gamut from microwave devices to systems in both terrestrial and space applications. The conference topics draw a very interested audience, because statistics show that the ratio of attendees to presenters is quite high, by almost a two-to-one ratio. The conference caters to its affinity group events such as Women in Microwaves (WiM), Young Professionals (YP), and of course, the very popular Student Paper Competition (SPC). The conference this year is chaired by Vaclav Valenta, and with his co-chair Roberto Gomez-Garcia, the two have guided a very dedicated team to bring attendees an outstanding technical and networking program. I urge you to begin your exploration of the issue by reading Hamhee Jeon’s column, From the Guest Editor’s Desk.

Besides the RWW2026 focus issue columns, we also have our regular feature articles. In his President’s Message this month, MTT President Goutam Chattopadhyay reviews some of the highlights of the most recent MTT Administrative Committee meeting held in Jaipur, India, in September 2025. Fred Schindler takes an interesting look at the perils of homogeneity in the workplace in our MicroBusiness column, and in our Health Matters column, James Lin looks at some recent findings on electromagnetic wave exposure from a study by the U.S. National Toxicology Program. Chinmoy Saha writes in our MGA News column about the Workshop on Electromagnetic Interference and Compatibility recently held in Kerala, India, while our Featured MTT Chapters column highlights efforts to engage the members of the North Italy Joint Chapter. The electromagnetic spectrum is highly regulated throughout the world, and in this month’s Spectrum Policy column, Michael Marcus explores some of the agenda items related to our frequency spectrum at the upcoming 2027 World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC).

Regular readers of IEEE Microwave Magazine are challenged each month with interesting problems created by Takashi Ohira in our Enigmas, etc. column (this month’s issue has the solution to last month’s problem). In 2025, Takashi has focused on providing insights into the foundations of wireless power transfer (WPT) with problems every other month. In this month’s Educator’s Corner, Takashi gathers up all of these problems, as well as other insights to provide an in-depth look at the fundamental coupling factor-quality factor (kQ) relationship so important in WPT systems. Rounding out the issue is a report on a Young Professionals event held at MAPCON 2024, our Ombuds Officer report. As always, check out the Conference Calendar and attend as many as you can.

I hope to see you in Hollywood, CA, USA, for Radio and Wireless Week 2026!

Summary by
Robert Caverly
EIC, IEEE Microwave Magazine