Weng Chew (original) (raw)

Weng Chew

Weng Chew

Administrative Titles

George and Ann Fisher Distinguished Professor Emeritus

(217) 333-7309

3040 Electrical & Computer Eng Bldg

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Education

Biography

W.C. Chew received all his degrees from MIT. His research interests are in wave physics, specializing in fast algorithms for multiple scattering imaging and computational electromagnetics in the last 30 years. His recent research interest is in combining quantum theory with electromagnetics, and differential geometry with computational electromagnetics. After MIT, he joined Schlumberger-Doll Research in 1981. In 1985, he joined U Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was then the director of the Electromagnetics Lab from 1995-2007. During 2000-2005, he was the Founder Professor, 2005-2009 the YT Lo Chair Professor, and since 2013 the Fisher Distinguished Professor. During 2007-2011, he was the Dean of Engineering at The University of Hong Kong. He has co-authored three books, many lecture notes, over 400 journal papers, and over 600 conference papers. He is a fellow of various societies, and an ISI highly cited author. In 2000, he received the IEEE Graduate Teaching Award, in 2001, the AP-S Schelkunoff Best Paper Award, in 2008, he received the IEEE AP-S CT Tai Distinguished Educator Award, in 2013, elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and in 2015 received the ACES Computational Electromagnetics Award. He is selected to receive the 2017 IEEE Electromagnetics Award, and will be the next IEEE AP-S President in 2018. He has international collaboration with The U of Hong Kong, and participates actively in the inter-disciplinary Area of Excellence Project on Theory, Modeling, and Simulation of Emerging Electronics supported by the Hong Kong government.

Professional Highlights

Teaching Statement

Prof. Chew teaches undergraduate courses and graduate courses. Throughout his career at UIUC, he has taught a large variety of undergraduate courses, ranging from electrical machinery, linear systems, electronic devices, electromagnetic fields and waves, to quantum mechanics for electrical engineers. He also teaches graduate courses in fundamental electromagnetics, waves and fields in inhomogeneous media, and theory of microwave and optical waveguides. He seeks to explain difficult concepts in a simple way so that one can obtain good physical insight from the complicated mathematics. He often supplements his lectures with supplementary lecture notes. He believes in the adages, "Once the mind is stretched, it does not regain its original dimension," and, "If you can't explain something simply, you don't really understand it." He is the winner of IEEE Graduate Teaching Award, the UIUC Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching, and IEEE AP Chen-To Tai Distinguised Educator Award.

Research Statement

Prof. Chew's research interest is in computational electromagnetics and fast computational algorithms for solving electromagnetic scattering and multiphysics problems. His recent research interest is in adding quantum effects and multi-physics concepts to computational works. This includes developing models for solar cells, nano-electronics, quantum transport, and Casimir force. He also studies computational methods to solve the multi-scale problem in computer chip and circuit design. He works with the Area of Excellence Project at The University of Hong Kong on "Theory, Modeling, and Simulation of Emerging Electronics".

His past areas of research interest have been in wave propagation, scattering, inverse scattering, complex boundary value problems for microstrip circuits, and inhomogeneous media for geophysical subsurface sensing, nondestructive testing applications. Previously, he has designed experiments with his graduate students to demonstrate the super-resolution phenomena of nonlinear inverse scattering. Working with his group and NCSA in year 2004, they have solved record-size electromagnetic scattering problems with 20 million unknowns using fast algorithms and matrix-free methods. He is the originator of several fast algorithms for solving electromagnetics scattering and inverse problems, and has authored a book, Waves and Fields in Inhomogeneous Media, and coauthored two books, Fast and Efficient Algorithms in Computational Electromagnetics and Integral Equation Methods for Electromagnetic and Elastic Waves, in addition to more than 300 scientific journal articles and 400 conference papers, several patents, book chapters, and many lecture notes.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Prof. Chew welcomes undergraduates to work in his research group.

Research Interests

Honors

Teaching Honors

Research Honors

Public Service Honors