Nuno Borges Carvalho
IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING
Diversity and inclusion are always at the center of our activities. If there is one thing that the pandemic years taught us, it was that our world is global, and one small thing happening in any part of the world can impact the overall economy. Think of the example of the Ever Given ship blocking the Suez Canal in 2021, which impacted the overall world supply chain. This brings to our attention that sometimes we are worried about our local issues and our local problems, and we forget the overall picture. We forget that we are a globalized world, and events and people can make a huge difference in any part of the world that will impact the overall world order.
This reminds me of the theory of chaos, which says that a simple butterfly wing flap can be the spark to create a hurricane on the other side of the world. But if you look carefully at the technical activities of some of our members, which can model and sometimes synchronize chaotic sources for communication, this is really what we are expected to do in a diverse world. We can make diversity the core of our Society by having all members work toward a common and synchronized goal to advance microwave technology for humanity.
This year, diversity and inclusion enter our group of committees in the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) AdCom, and as IEEE looks forward, the MTT-S also looks forward to working as a fair and equal opportunity Society, bringing members from all over the world to join us, increase our diversity, and promote new ideas and views of technology.
To achieve this goal, several activities have been put together by the MTT-S AdCom, including a new ad hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the expansion of our promotion activities among student and industry communities. This creation of awareness and promotion of the MTT-S and its activities are the objectives of our Marketing and Communications Committee (MarCom). These are the two AdCom committees that have been presented this month.
One of the MTT-S missions is to advance technologies in the field of RF and microwaves as a “MHz to THz Community” to benefit humanity, which requires the development of various resources in support of our professionals in their career growth. For this purpose, the MTT-S requires the talents and perspectives of people with different personal, cultural, and disciplinary backgrounds in the field of RF and microwaves.
Nature is founded on diversity, and this diversity can be reflected in such aspects as culture, development level, gender, language, and performance style. Therefore, the MTT-S is committed to advancing diversity in the technical profession and promoting an inclusive and equitable culture in society.
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee will focus mainly on the following two important aspects:
The committee will be chaired by Wenquan Che (Figure 1). Wenquan is a Fellow of IEEE and a professor at the South China University of Technology. Her research interests include microwave circuits and antenna technology, and she has published more than 300 international journal papers. She has been an elected member of the MTT-S AdCom since 2017 and has performed as Women in Microwaves subcommittee chair, Education Committee chair, and member/vice chair of several committees/subcommittees. She is the editor-in-chief of Microwave and Optical Technology Letters (2019–2025).
In 2023, the MTT-S MarCom will continue its core mission of propagating and increasing the image and visibility of the MTT-S in all media channels and attracting and retaining members from academia, industry, and government, with a special emphasis on students and young professionals from industry. MarCom will develop targeted messages that highlight the value of the MTT-S for member education, career advancement, and professional networking for different demographics and geographical regions with an emphasis on underrepresented communities, e.g., Africa and South America. MarCom will also support MTT-S diversity and inclusion initiatives to achieve demonstrable results in 2023. MarCom will continue the current efforts to monetize the MTT-S assets through the expansion of short courses, technical lectures, and event contents and through enhanced collaboration with the sales/marketing vendors to achieve specified revenue metrics. MarCom will also support the worldwide activities of the Member and Geographic Activities Committee by providing all Chapters with tabletop displays and other materials that highlight the MTT-S brand and activities.
MarCom is chaired by Sridhar Kanamaluru (Figure 2), who is a technical fellow and the chief architect for Aerospace Instrumentation at the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, serving the U.S. Department of Defense Flight Test Instrumentation industry. Since receiving his doctoral degree in 1996, Sridhar has served in increasingly senior roles in the microwave industry, including senior antenna engineer (Millitech Corporation), manager of microwave systems (Sarnoff Corporation), director of engineering (Herley Industries), and principal scientist (DRS Technologies). He has also served as adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Villanova University.
Sridhar received his bachelor’s degree from Anna University, India, in 1987. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University in 1993 and 1996, respectively.
Sridhar has served the MTT-S in various capacities, including membership in the (previously) MTT-8 Technical Committee and multiple International Microwave Symposium (IMS) Technical Paper Review Committees and serving as IMS2018 general chair, MTT-S 2020 AdCom secretary, and MTT-S Operations Committee chair in 2021 and 2022.
I encourage you to visit our website (https://www.mtt.org) for more information about the MTT-S and volunteer opportunities.
Nuno Borges Carvalho (nbcarvalho@av.it.pt), 2023 MTT-S president, is with the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications, and Informatics, University of Aveiro, Aveiro 3810-193 Portugal.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226555