Carl Pfeiffer receives 2009 IEEE MTTS Undergraduate/Pre-Graduate Scholarship

Carl Pfeiffer, an undergraduate student of electrical engineering, received an IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Undergradute/Pre-Graduate Scholarship. He is one of only seven recipients of this award, which is designed to encourage future leaders and key technical contributors.

Carl has been working in Prof. Tony Grbic‘s lab for the past two years and has been very active in research during this time. He co-presented a conference poster at this past summer’s General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) in Chicago, entitled, “Broadband Negative-Refractive-Index Media: Analytical Modeling and Free-Space Measurements,” co-authored by graduate student Scott Rudolph and Prof. Grbic. In this paper, Carl reported on the free-space material characterization system he developed at X-band frequencies (8-12 GHz). He has also submitted a conference paper on the antenna he developed during his 2008 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) summer internship to the 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation.

Prof. Grbic says he has been extremely impressed with Carl’s research ability, as well as his initiative in learning the background material needed to accomplish the research, which included reading Prof. Fawwaz Ulaby’s book, Electromagnetics for Engineers, and other background material. “Carl is quite creative when it comes to overcoming hurdles that lay in the path of achieving his research goals,” stated Prof. Grbic.