QUEST leader wins IET A.F.Harvey Prize

Posted on November 26, 2015

The QUEST team are delighted to announce that its Principle Investigator, Professor Yang Hao, has been awarded a prestigious international prize from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Professor Hao, a world expert in antennas and electromagnetics, won £300,000 IET A.F. Harvey Engineering Research Prize. He was chosen from a field of high-calibre candidates from across the world as a result of his outstanding contributions in the fields of microwave, antennas and electromagnetics.

Professor Hao’s ‘Tailoring Microwave Antennas using Smart Materials via Transformation Optics’ research is focussed on developing a new generation of antennae with better aesthetics and a fundamental new design, which could allow them to be used in new and exciting ways, particularly in satellite communications and the aerospace industry.

One of the long-term aims for Professor Hao’s research is to develop advances in communications that can deliver faster, cheaper mobile phone charging and widespread availability of mobile coverage whilst on board aircraft. His work is likely to result in streamlined antennas, which could in future be integrated into mobile phones, improving network coverage. They could also spell the end of satellite dishes, with the next generation of antennas instead being built into the smart homes of the future.

Professor Hao said: “The IET A.F. Harvey Engineering Research Prize will enable us to take our work a step further, out of the lab towards real engineering applications and industry.

“We want to make smarter but lower cost antennas, an engineering reality that can be enjoyed by everyone, from those working in satellite communications within the aerospace industry, to people who travel regularly by airplane and would like to be able to use their mobile phone seamlessly throughout their flight.”

Professor Hao will present his lecture, titled ‘Antenna Engineering in the Era of Big Data’, at IET London: Savoy Place on 17 March 2016.