The May issue of the IEEE Microwave Magazine highlights the upcoming IEEE Microwave Week, a series of conferences anchored by the MTT Society’s flagship conference, the International Microwave Symposium (IMS2021), as well as the co-located conferences Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Symposium (RFIC) and the Automatic Radio Frequency Techniques Group (ARFTG). In addition, this issue also includes many of the columns and features that you expect from the Microwave Magazine. Traditionally, this IMS issue is the largest issue of the year and this year is no exception; the Editorial Board hopes you enjoy the variety of features in the issue. There truly is something for everyone.

The IMS2021 team has been planning for a lively conference in spite of pandemic restrictions, using the lessons learned from IMS2020 and the best-practices that have been developed over the last year in conference planning and presentation.  IMS2021 is planned as a hybrid conference, where both live sessions at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC), in Atlanta, GA, USA, and virtual sessions will be presented using various presentation methods. In this issue, you can find out more details on the technical sessions as well as variety of other sessions and activities.  Your first stop as you read the IMS2021 focus issue should be the greetings by the IMS2021 General Chairs, Steve Kenney and John Papapolymerou. The General Chairs are leading a team that is planning the activities that are traditional for IMS, as well as a few new ones. The column by the Technical Program Chairs will provide you with the background on the paper submission and review process and statistics, as well as some of the new technical activities for the IMS. A Technical Program Preview can be found in the issue; this will provide you with an advanced look at the technical sessions in order to help you plan your conference schedule. Later in the issue some of these technical activities are described in much more detail, such as the always-popular technical workshops and lectures, panel and focus sessions, and the RF Boot Camp. For students and Young Professionals, the 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) returns to IMS2021 with the chance to present your work in a fast-paced approach to a panel of non-specialist judges.  Project Connect returns again this year with an activity to enhance the opportunities for students to network and get to know the MTT Community.  The Women in Microwaves (WiM) community is planning a virtual event on “Envisioning the Future of Connectivity…”.   Finally, the General Chairs of the co-located RFIC and ARFTG Conferences have columns welcoming you to attend their conferences and providing a preview of the events planned for their respective conferences.

This issue of the Microwave Magazine is also packed with our regular features.  We have three technical features this month, including two by our Distinguished Microwave Lecturers (DMLs).  The first technical feature, by Prof. James Hwang and titled “Label-free Noninvasive Cell Characterization by Broadband Impedance Spectroscopy,” looks at the use of microwave and RF techniques to characterize the electrical dielectric and conducting properties of single cells to help determine, among other attributes, whether the cell is alive or not. The second technical feature is by another DML, Prof. Ho-Jin Song, and is titled “TeraHertz Wireless Communications”. This article presents recent developments in the TeraHertz (THz) range and provides a look inside the first THz communications prototype for short-range data communication.  The final feature, by Dr. Akira Inoue of Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Japan, is titled “Millimeter wave GaN devices for 5G” and was developed from a workshop presentation by the author at IMS2019. The article reviews the history of devices for 4G and 5G and  then focuses in on the use of GaN for high power cellular applications.

Besides the IMS and the technical features, we have a number of columns for you to check out.  Please read the MTT President’s column “IMS — Connecting Minds. Exchanging Ideas” for Dr. Lyons’ thoughts on the IMS, as well as some interesting IMS history. Dr. Steve Cripps returns this month with his Microwave Bytes column, which takes an interesting look at electromagnetics and cavity resonators. We have a Health Matters column this month where Dr. James Lin discusses the interplay between science and politics.  The MicroBusiness column continues with the discussion on success and how to sustain it. Microwave Surfing and a look at the upcoming schedule MTT-S Education Committee’s organized webinars for the remainder of 2021 can also be found in this issue. This month’s MTT Society News contains a report covering the period 2019 to 2020 of the activities and accomplishments of the MTT Society’s Technical Committee (TC) 28 – Biological Effects and Medical Applications Committee. We hope to continue these reports for other TCs in upcoming issues.  Our Enigmas, etc., column continues this month with Dr. Ohira’s new challenge of calculating the shunting capacitance voltage across the switching device in a switching power amplifier. Finally, this month’s issue contains a Women in Microwaves’ interview with Dr. Rhonda Franklin, recipient in 2019 of the MTT Society’s N. Walter Cox Award for meritorious service and professor at the Univ. of Minnesota.

We hope you enjoy the issue and IMS2021, regardless of whether you attend in-person or vitually!

Robert Caverly