President’s Message

Having completed a third of my term as the 2025 IEEE Antennasand Propagation Society (AP-S) President when writing this message (in mid-April 2025), it is an appropriate time to reflect on how the society can best serve its members and the community. To begin with, it is important to recognize that the dedication of our volunteers is the engine enabling the depth and breadth of the society’s activities. AP-S was founded in 1949 by volunteers and remains driven by a spirit of volunteer service. I experience on a daily basis that enthusiasm thrives at all levels of the organization, from the student branches and chapters, to the Administrative Committee of the society.

Mirroring the explosive developments of wireless technologies, our society has been expanding to reach a count of 13,000 members at the dawn of 2025. To best serve our growing worldwide community and to support an increasing number of professional activities, structural changes to the society governance have been introduced in 2024 under the leadership of President Branislav Notaros. While implementing these changes in early 2025 I had the honor of appointing the inaugural Vice-Presidents of the society, namely Prof. Vikass Monebhurrun (Professional Activities), Prof. Mahta Moghaddam (Technical Activities), Prof. Guido Lombardi (Operations and Finance), Prof. Danilo Erricolo (Conferences) and Prof. Francesco Andriulli (Publications). These experienced volunteers are now actively coordinating the activities of more than 23 standing committees (as described in the AP-S Bylaws) with a wide range of scopes. Despite their diverse purposes all committees are focused on fostering the discipline of electromagnetics, antennas and propagation. With this focus the 2025 leadership team of the society gathered for the AP-S Administrative Committee (AdCom) meeting, which took place on a busy weekend in February and featured discussions of 44 agenda items (Fig. 1).

As a professional society, AP-S aspires to be the most trusted source of information in our field of interest. Dissemination of high-quality information fosters life-long learning, while AP-S initiatives are creating a fertile environment for mentoring next generations of electromagnetic engineers and scientists. In the following, recent AP-S developments are featured to illustrate how learning and mentoring are at the heart of the various facets of the society’s activities.

Learning is indissociable to research and development in science and engineering. Continuous acquisition of state-ofthe-art knowledge is most important in electromagnetics and wireless technologies where demand is high, evolution is fast-paced and possibilities are endless. Life-long learning becomes a necessity for “Advancing Electromagnetics Frontiers” – the AP-S tagline. Beyond the necessity, it is undeniable that most antennas and propagation engineers are simply passionate about their craft. Most consider expanding their knowledge a source of joy and professional fulfilment. Naturally, learning is at the forefront of many AP-S activities:

• AP-S offers a most trusted suite of journals in antennas, propagation and more generally in electromagnetics. Our publication portfolio is constantly re-evaluated and new journals are occasionally established to cater for emerging needs. The launch of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Electromagnetics, Antennas and Propagation (JSTEAP – Fig. 2) under the leadership of Prof. Ross Murch, will provide a highly visible platform for research contributions at the cross-road of electromagnetics, microwave and communications technologies. The journal is cosponsored by AP-S, the Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) and the Communications Society (ComSoc), reflecting the multiple interconnected facets of today’s wireless technologies. The topic of the first call for papers is Integrated Sensing and Communications and the inaugural issue is expected – with excitement – in late 2025.

  

• Conferences remain a privileged opportunity to learn about new developments while expanding one’s professional network. AP-S supports more than 40 conferences around the world yearly. These include 7 financially co-sponsored conferences and more than 30conferences with technical sponsorship. In recent years, particular attention has been given to traditionally underserved regions around the world. I am therefore particularly pleased to highlight the International Microwave & Antennas Symposium (IMAS 2025), which will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 2025, and the IEEE Microwaves, Antennas, and Propagation Conference (MAPCON 2025) to be held in Kochi, India, in December 2025. Both events are financially co-sponsored by AP-S and MTT-S, and are premier events in their respective regions (Fig. 3). As a further highlight, the second edition of the IEEE AP-S Latin American Conference on Antennas and Propagation (LACAP 2026) will take place in Natal, Brazil, in early 2026 and will undoubtedly build on the resounding success of the first LACAP edition in 2024.

  

• Learning transcends the perceived divide between industry, government and academic communities. The different sectors have so much to gain from mutual interaction. AP-S is committed to fostering increased cooperation across the three sectors of activities. The flagship conference of the society, the IEEE AP-S/URSI, will take place in July 2025 in Ottawa, and will provide excellent opportunities to network, recruit, and initiate collaborations. Various initiatives will encourage industry involvement including an expanding exhibition with flexible models of patronage (e.g. for first-time exhibitors, start-up companies and universities), as well as a day-long Future G Summit (Fig. 3) featuring industry leaders and a panel discussion. In the technical program, the introduction of a dedicated “industry paper” category is an exciting development for IEEE AP-S/URSI. Industry papers are expected to emphasize practicality and best practices rather than academic novelty. For the first time in the AP-S flagship conference an award will be presented in Ottawa for the Best Industry Paper. This underlines the commitment of AP-S to life-long learning across all activity sectors.

• The AP-S chapters and student branches form a solid connection between the local communities and AP-S. I fondly remember volunteering in my local chapter – Organizing chapter events is both enjoyable and rewarding. These events offer unique networking opportunities within a local high-tech eco-system. The society is keen to support our 280+ chapters worldwide and encourages chapter officers to take advantage of the various supporting mechanisms available to them. In particular, the Distinguished Lecturers program offers the possibility to invite renowned speakers to local chapters. Inter-society events can be jointly organized with our sister societies MTT-S, EMC-S, AESS or GRSS. I was fortunate to attend a few recent DL events and found them to be technically stimulating while enabling ample interactions with local AP-S communities (Fig. 4).

  

• Cutting-edge technological advances do not happen in isolation and the complexity of modern systems requires cooperation of various components anchored in different specialties. AP-S is committed to close collaboration with other like-minded societies and shares numerous jointly sponsored events. Of particular mention, the collaborative and collegial relationship of AP-S with our sister society MTT-S enables impactful joint initiatives and promotes the parallel growth of both organizations (Fig. 5).

Learning in engineering and technology thrives on mentorship by educators, advisers and role models. AP-S is fortunate to rely on dedicated experienced members for supporting and mentoring our students and young professionals. In my view, there is no greater career fulfilment than transmitting knowledge, generously sharing experience and witnessing successes of the younger generation. AP-S provides a solid framework to empower mentorship:

• AP-S supports more than 350 individual awards for students and early career professionals, including travel grants, doctoral and pre-doctoral research grants, or early-career fellowships. Open calls are regularly announced through social media and email campaigns. As an example of successful AP-S program offered by our Education Committee, the Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship (USRS) awards $3,000-grants to 34 undergraduate students for conducting research under supervision of an AP-S mentor.

• IEEE Young Professionals (YP) are defined as members who have graduated from their first degree within the past 15 years. AP-S has initiated a vigorous YP program selecting 10 to 20 YP Ambassadors yearly. These ambassadors deliver virtual talks to AP-S chapters and provide outreach services at AP-S events. Importantly this program creates a multi-level mentorship structure, where YP Ambassadors become both mentees and mentors. I am pleased to state that starting in 2025 most AP-S standing committees have integrated at least one YP in their membership. Many of the YP volunteers appointed in these committees were selected among the YP Ambassadors. Fostering next generations is a priority of the society and AP-S empowers talented researchers through multiple best paper awards for students and YPs. The latest addition is the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Paper Award (Fig. 7). This Award is supported by a generous donation of Dr. C.J. Reddy and will recognize the best paper published by a YP in the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters in the preceding calendar year.

  

• AP-S has established the AP-S Talent Development Fund with founding Chair Prof. Kamal Sarabandi in partnership with the IEEE Foundation [1]. This fund will complement current AP-S initiatives and support talented young researchers. Donations (Fig. 8) may be matched by AP-S to double impact and demonstrate the commitment of the society to mentoring next generations. An example of a successful initiative is the IEEE AP-S John Volakis Travel Grant for Graduate Students. This initiative will support attendance to IEEE AP-S conferences and honor Prof. Volakis, an outstanding mentor to his Graduate Students.

Conclusion

The featured examples have provided snapshots of the abundant activities of AP-S. This range of activities would not be possible without the selfless dedication of our volunteers. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for your engagement if you are one of these volunteers. If you are a student or a YP, I encourage you to take advantage of our various programs, and later through your career to stay engaged in AP-S and contribute to upholding its legacy of learning and mentorship. Beyond the support to our profession, I am convinced that this will meaningfully enhance the purpose of your professional endeavors.