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Career Objective

To contribute as a Professor to the effective dissemination, creative generation and innovative utilization of knowledge in the field of Electrical Engineering.

Research Interests

  • Electromagnetic Theory.
  • Inverse Scattering and Imaging.
  • Wave-based Signal Processing and Information Theory.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, 1997 (GPA: 4.0/4.0).
  • Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Northeastern University, 1994 (GPA: 4.0/4.0).
  • Bachelor of Science in Electromechanical Engineering, Technological University of Panama, 1990. Honors: Graduated Summa Cum Laude (highest honors), and Valedictorian (highest GPA among all graduated at the University in 1990).

Other Honors

  • Recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award (2008).
  • Technological University of Panama Most Distinguished Alumnus in the category of Research, Innovation, and Technological Development (2008).
  • Elected Member of the International Union of Radio Science (Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale (URSI)) (elected into Commission B: Fields and Waves, in 2006).
  • Fulbright Scholar sponsored by the United States Department of State (1992-1994).
  • Elected Member of the Honor Societies of Phi Kappa Phi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Tau Beta Pi.
  • First Place of Panama's National Contests of Mathematics (1983) and Chemistry (1984), organized by the University of Panama, Panama.

Research Awards

  • Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for the project entitled "CAREER: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Wave-Based Signal Processing: Compressive Sensing and Signal-Subspace-Based Imaging"; Feb. 2008-Feb. 2013; Amount: $424,000 (award number 0746310).

  • Principal Investigator, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Grant Number FA9550-06-01-0013, on "Inverse source problem in non-homogeneous and metamaterial background media: Antenna synthesis and performance bounds"; November 2005-November 2008; Amount: $342,974.

  • Co-Principal Investigator, along with Professor Richard Ziolkowski at the University of Arizona; National Science Foundation Grant on "Theory and applications of observability of classical and quantized radiation fields"; April 1999-April 2002; Amount: $200,000.

  • Italian National Research Council Award on "Information content of electromagnetic fields"; Inviting institution: Seconda Universita di Napoli, Aversa, Italy; September 8-22, 2000.

  • Other: Co-principal Investigator, along with Professor Eric Miller at Northeastern University (now at Tufts University), on sub-contract to BAE Systems on an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Proposal on "Persistent source localization and tracking in the urban canyon by time reversal", 2006; Amount: $247,000 including options; accepted, but money never came in due to governmental budgeting issues.

Work Experience

  • 05/10-to date: Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Investigates electromagnetic scattering and inverse scattering, electromagnetic information theory, wireless communications, and compressive optics. Teaches, among other courses, the graduate courses on Modern Imaging, Electromagnetic Theory II, Antennas and Radiation, and Light and Information.

  • 08/04-05/10: Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Investigated electromagnetic inverse scattering, wave-based signal processing, electromagnetic information theory, metamaterial substrates for imaging and radiation enhancement, and other areas. Taught the graduate courses on Modern Imaging, Complex Variables and Differential Equations, Special Topics (Inverse Scattering), an Advanced Seminar for PhD students with emphasis on Electromagnetic Theory and Applications, and Electromagnetic Theory II, and the undergraduate courses on Electromagnetic Fields and Waves, Numerical Methods, Linear Systems, Introduction to Subsurface Sensing and Imaging, and a Special Topics Course on Electric Field Sensing.

  • 01/04-08/04: Northeastern University. Research Associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Investigated electromagnetic inverse scattering and time-reversal imaging algorithms.

  • 07/03-01/04: Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Research Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Investigated the spatio-temporal information capacity of wireless multiple antenna systems.

  • 03/00-07/03: Technological University of Panama, Panama. Research Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Investigated electromagnetic wave inverse problems for remote sensing and antenna design. Designed wireless communication systems for nationwide rural education-at-a-distance and telemedicine projects. Taught the graduate Electrical Engineering courses on

    • Digital Signal Processing (Fall, 2002)
    • Applied Probability and Stochastic Processes (Spring, 2000)
    and two Special Topics series:
    • Wireless Communications (Spring, 2003)
    • Quantum Information Engineering (Spring, 2001).
    Taught the undergraduate Electrical Engineering course on
    • Probability and Random Processes (Spring, 2003).

  • 04/98-08/00 and 08/01-05/02: University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Research Associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Investigated electromagnetic wave inverse problems for remote sensing and antenna design, and quantum information (also did further graduate coursework (four courses) in the information theory (including quantum information theory) and digital signal processing areas (GPA: 4.0/4.0)).

  • 09/97-04/98: Northeastern University. Research Associate in the Center for Electromagnetics Research. Developed computational electromagnetic tools for ground-penetrating radar imaging.

  • 01/98-04/98: Northeastern University. Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Taught the undergraduate Electric Energy Devices course.

  • 06/96-08/96: Air Force Research Laboratory, Bedford, Massachusetts. Visiting Summer Research Intern. Investigated laser-driven photo-conducting antennas for ultra-wide band radar and secure communications.

  • 09/92-09/97: Northeastern University. Research Assistant in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Investigated the analysis, characterization and source-synthesis, via three-dimensional antennas, of well-collimated ultra-wide band/short pulse electromagnetic fields for radar and secure communications.

  • 03/92-08/92: Technological University of Panama. Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Taught the undergraduate courses on Internal Combustion Machines and Theory of Mechanical Vibrations.

  • 05/91-05/92: IBM Panama. Systems Engineering Trainee. Supported customer service and marketing of IBM products.

  • 04/91-08/91: Universidad Santa Maria La Antigua, Panama. Lecturer in the Department of Electronics Engineering. Taught the undergraduate Electronics Laboratory and Electric Machinery courses.

Other Experience

  • 07/02-07/03 Worked as a subcontract to an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant, for A.J. Devaney Associates, Boston, Massachusetts, on multi-static radar time-reversal imaging.

  • 12/02-03/03 Expert witness appointed by the Panama Court of Justice in the BellSouth Communications versus Tricom case concerning the deployment of Motorola's integrated Digital Enhanced Network mobile communications technology.

  • 05/00-11/00 Worked as a subcontract to an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant, for A.J. Devaney Associates, on background media-embedded antenna design.

Main Research Areas

  • Electromagnetic theory.
  • Inverse scattering and imaging.
  • Wave-based signal processing and information theory.

Main Teaching Areas

  • Graduate-level Modern Imaging.
  • Graduate-level Electromagnetic Theory.
  • Undergraduate-level courses in electromagnetics, numerical methods, and other.

Curricular Development

  • Nominated for the 2009 Northeastern University Excellence in Teaching Award.
  • Created the new graduate course on "Modern Imaging" for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University (2007).
  • Created the new graduate course on "Light and Information" for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University (2007).
  • Created two new graduate programs in telecommunications, including an Executive program, at the Technological University of Panama (2003).

Professional Service and Peer Groups

Member of:

  • The International Union of Radio Science (Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale (URSI)) (elected into Commission B: Fields and Waves, in 2006)
  • The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (Senior Member)
  • The Optical Society of America

Currently reviews or has reviewed papers for the following research journals:

  • IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
  • IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
  • IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
  • IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
  • IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
  • IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters
  • Physical Review Letters
  • Physical Review A
  • Physical Review B
  • Physical Review E
  • Journal of Applied Physics
  • Applied Physics Letters
  • Journal of the Optical Society of America (A)
  • Applied Optics
  • Optics Letters
  • Optics Communications
  • Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
  • Journal of Mathematical Physics
  • Radio Science
  • Waves in Random Media
  • The IEE Proceedings: Radar, Sonar and Navigation
  • International Journal of Imaging Systems and Technology
  • International Journal of Computational Methods
  • Near Surface Geophysics (by the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE))
  • Wave Motion
  • SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences
  • SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis
  • Inverse Problems
  • Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications (JEMWA)
  • Progress in Electromagnetics Research (PIER) journals
  • IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine
  • Remote Sensing (MDPI journal)
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society (A)
  • Europhysics Letters

Member of the International Program Committee of:

  • 2007 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Montreal, Canada, May-June 2007.
  • 2008 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Baltimore, Maryland, April 16-18, 2008.
  • 2008 Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 2-6, 2008.
  • IEEE Sarnoff Symposium 2009, Princeton, New Jersey, March 30-April 1, 2009.
  • 2009 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Banff, Canada, July 6-8, 2009.
  • IEEE Sarnoff Symposium 2010, Princeton, New Jersey, April 12-14, 2010.
  • 2010 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Nov. 1-3, 2010.

Paper reviewer for:

  • IEEE Radar 2007, Waltham, Massachusetts, April 2007.
  • 2007 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Montreal, Canada, May-June 2007.
  • 2008 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Baltimore, Maryland, April 16-18, 2008.
  • IEEE Sarnoff Symposium 2009, Princeton, New Jersey, March 30-April 1, 2009.
  • 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro, Boston, Massachusetts, June 28-July 1, 2009.
  • 2009 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Banff, Canada, July 6-8, 2009.
  • 2010 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory, Berlin, Germany, August 16-19, 2010.

Session chair or co-chair in:

  • 2005 National Radio Science Meeting, Boulder, Colorado, January 2005.
  • 2005 International URSI/IEEE Antennas and Propagation Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., July 2005.
  • 2005 IASTED International Conference on Antennas, Radar and Wave Propagation, Banff, Alberta, Canada, July 2005.
  • 2006 International URSI/IEEE Antennas and Propagation Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 2006.
  • 2007 National Radio Science Meeting, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, July 2007.
  • 2007 International URSI-Commission-B Electromagnetic Theory Symposium, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, July 2007.
  • 2008 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Boston, Massachusetts, July, 2008.
  • XXIX General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), Chicago, Illinois, August, 2008.
  • 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Spokane, Washington, July, 2011.

Student Paper Award Committee Member in:

  • 2006 National Radio Science Meeting, Boulder, Colorado, January 2006.
  • 2007 National Radio Science Meeting, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, July 2007.
  • XXIX General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), Chicago, Illinois, August 2008.
  • 2009 National Radio Science Meeting, Boulder, Colorado, January 2009.

Other referee activity:

  • Research grant proposal reviewer for the National Science Foundation.
  • Research grant proposal reviewer for the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) (via the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF)).
  • Book reviewer, for Cambridge University Press, Elsevier Academic Press, Wiley, Oxford University Press, etc.

Intramural service:

  • Member of the Graduate Affairs Committee, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University (since 2005).
  • Chairman of the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam Committee, in the Electromagnetics area, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University (2008, 2009, 2011).
  • Northeastern University's Faculty Fellow/Residential Life Mentor for Undergraduates (2007, 2008).
  • Lead faculty advisor of Northeastern University's chapter of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society (since 2012).
  • Lead faculty coordinator of Northeastern University's international cooperation agreement with Panama's National Authority for Governmental Innovation (since 2010).

International Fulbright Service

Served an international Fulbright period of two cumulative years in Panama in 2000-2001 and 2002-2003. As part of it:

  • Headed an effort establishing new research-intensive guidelines of education at the Technological University of Panama.
  • Headed a committee establishing two new graduate programs in telecommunications, including an Executive program, at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technological University of Panama.
  • Supervised fives theses at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technological University of Panama, and gave many presentations in conferences, colloquia, and other meetings at the University.
  • Investigated rural and wireless telecommunications for the planning and design associated with two nationwide social projects in Panama:
    • A nationwide, Panama telecommunications network for education-at-a-distance and Internet connection to serve rural and other underserved communities. This project has been deployed thanks to grants from international aid organizations.
    • A nationwide, Panama telemedicine network. This contribution is part of a strategic joint effort between the Technological University of Panama and the University of Arizona and its Arizona Telemedicine Program. Portions of this on-going project have been deployed thanks to grants from Yuma Proving Grounds, Yuma, Arizona.