BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Marwan A. Simaan joined the University of Central Florida in 2008 as the Florida 21^st Century Chair and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In 2009 he served as Interim Dean and then Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science until July 1, 2012. Prior to joining the University of Central Florida he was the Bell of PA/Bell Atlantic Professor and former Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.  He received the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy (EMA). He is also an Honorary Member of Phi Eta Sigma, the National Freshmen Honor Society.

Dr. Simaan’s research is highly interdisciplinary in nature and covers a broad spectrum of topics in control, optimization, signal processing, telecommunication, and knowledge-based applications. In the past 40 years, he has worked on a wide range of research projects with researchers from a variety of disciplines including biomedical, mechanical, materials, and manufacturing engineers as well as physicists, mathematicians, geologists, geophysicists, computer scientists, economists, and political scientists.  His research has been funded by NSF, DARPA, AFOSR, ONR, NIH, and a variety of industrial sources including Gulf Oil, Alcoa, and Westinghouse. Among his publications are 5 books (4 edited/co-edited), 60 co-edited journal issues, 120 archival journal papers and book chapters, 200 papers in conference proceedings, 24 industry technical reports, and 2 patents (one pending).  

Dr. Simaan currently serves or has served on numerous professional Editorial Boards including the PROCEEDINGS of the IEEE, the IEEE Press, the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-Part II, the IEEE Systems Journal, the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications (JOTA), the Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers, and the Journal on Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering. He also served as series editor of Advances in Geophysical Data Processing for JAI Press, Inc. (1983-92), and co-editor of the Journal of Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing: Springer (1989-04).

In 2005 he served as chair of the NAE Electronics Engineering Peer Committee for the 2006 Election and he subsequently served a three year term on the NAE Committee-on-Membership (2007-2010). He served on the IEEE Fellow Committee (1990-93, 2002-04 and 2010- ), the IEEE Education Medal Committee (2010 - ), the IEEE Prize Papers and Graduate Fellowships Committee (2001-04), and the AACC Awards Committee (1994-99) which he chaired (1997-99). He also served as an EE Program Evaluator for ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (1993-98 & 2000-07) and is currently serving as Secretary and Member of the Steering Group of Section M (Engineering Section AAAS-M ) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Dr. Simaan received numerous teaching awards from Eta Kappa Nu and IEEE Student chapters at the University of Pittsburgh. He also received the School of Engineering Board of Visitors Faculty Award for excellence in research (1986), the Beitle-Veltri Memorial Teaching Award (1990), and was elected to the Engineering Hall of Fame (2002).  He received three best paper awards from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (1985), the Sigma Xi, Alcoa Chapter (1988), and the IEEE Industry Applications Society (1999).   In 1995 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. In 2007 he received the IEEE Education Society Achievement Award and in 2008 he received the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering.

Dr. Simaan is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Pennsylvania.