Commission B (Fields and Waves) Activity Report*

- June 15, 2002 to October 31, 2002 -

Report Date: October 31, 2002

Prepared by: Kazuya Kobayashi, Chuo University

Makoto Ando, Tokyo Institute of Technology

1. Past National and International Conferences

-     2002 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, San Anto­nio, TX, USA, June 16-21, 2002.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Microwaves (MW), Nagaoka, Japan, June 19-20, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 18.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (A^.P), Tokyo, Japan, June 27, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 6.

-     2002 Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2002), Cambridge, MA, USA, July 1-5, 2002.

-     IEICE-A^.P Workshop on Analysis and Design Methods in Antennas and Propagation, Tokyo, Japan, July 2, 2002. Lecturer: Prof. N. Kikuma, Nagoya Institute of Technology.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (A^.P), Sapporo, Japan, July 24-26, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 40.

-     IEEJ/IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Electromagnetic Theory (EMT), Sapporo, Japan, July 25, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 8.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Microwaves (MW), Sapporo, Japan, July 25-26, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 20.

-     XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science, Maastricht, The Netherlands, August 17-24, 2002.

-     IEICE-A^.P Workshop on Analysis and Design Methods in Antennas and Propagation, Tokyo, Japan, September 5, 2002. Lecturer: Prof. Y. Ogawa, Hokkaido University.

-     2002 IEICE Society Conference, Miyazaki, Japan, September 10-13, 2002.

-     9th International Conference on Mathematical Methods in Electromagnetic Theory (MMET*02), Kiev, Ukraine, September 10-13, 2002.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (A^.P), Saitama, Japan, September 19, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 13.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Microwaves (MW), Tokyo, Japan, September 19, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 12.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Microwaves (MW), Sendai, Japan, October 24-25, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 26.

-     32nd European Microwave Conference 2002 (EuMC 2002), Milan, Italy, September 24-26, 2002.

-     2002 Korea-Japan Microwave Workshop, Yokosuka, Japan, October 7-8, 2002.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (A^.P), Fukui, Japan, October 17-19, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 22.

-     2002 IEEJ/IEICE Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (EMT), Shizuoka, Japan, October 23-25, 2002. Total number of papers presented: 66.

2. Future National and International Conferences

-      2002 International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP2002), Awaji, Japan, November 5-8, 2002. http://www.casjo.org/mwp2002/

-     12th International Symposium on Antennas (JINA 2002), Nice, France, November 12-14, 2002. http://www.jina2002.com/

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Microwaves (MW), Kyoto, Japan, November 18, 2002. Total number of papers to be presented: 13.

-     2002 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC’02), Kyoto, Japan, November 19-22, 2002.

http://www.apmc-mwe.org/

-     2002 Interim International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP i-02), Yokosuka, Japan, November 26-28, 2002. http://www.ieice.org/cs/ap/ISAP2002/

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (A^.P), Tokyo, Japan, December 12, 2002. Total number of papers to be presented: 8.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Microwaves (MW), Yamaguchi, Japan, December 19-20, 2002. Total number of papers to be presented: 23.

-     2003 Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2003), Singapore, January 7-10, 2003. http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/piers03/

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Microwaves (MW), Tokyo, Japan, January 15-17, 2003.

-     IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (A^.P), Kumamoto, Japan, January 23-24, 2003.

-     IEEJ/IEICE Conference of Technical Committee on Electromagnetic Theory (EMT), Tokyo, Japan, January 24, 2003.

-     The 19th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics, Monterey, CA, USA, March 17-21, 2003. http://aces.ee.olemiss.edu/

-     2003 IEICE General Conference, Sendai, Japan, March 19-22, 2003.

http://www.ieice.org/jpn/event/zenkokutaikai.html

-     2003 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, Philadelphia, PA, USA, June 8-13, 2003.

 http://www.ims2003.org

-     2003 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and URSI North American Radio Science Meeting, Columbus, OH, USA, June 23-27, 2003. http://www.ieeeaps.org/

-     International Seminar: Day on Diffraction 2003 (DD’03), St. Petersburg, Russia, June 24-27, 2003.

http://mph.phys.spbu.ru/DD

-     2003 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2003), Toulouse, France, July 21-25, 2003.

-     The 6^th International Symposium on Antennas, Propagation, and EM Theory (ISAPE2003), Beijing, China, August 17-21, 2003. http://www.cie-china.org/isape2003

-     The 2003 Far-Eastern School-Seminar on Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Analysis (FESS- MMNA’03), Nakhodka, Russia, August 22-31, 2003.

-      2003 International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA’03), Torino, Italy, September 8-12, 2003. http://staff.polito.it/~iceaa/

-      2003 Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2003), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, October 13-16, 2003. http://www.piers.org

-     2003 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC’03), Seoul, Korea, November 4-7, 2003.

http://www.apmc2003.org/

-     2004 URSI International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory, Pisa, Italy, May 2004.

-     2004 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, Fort Worth, TX, USA, June 5-12, 2004.

 http://www.ims2004.org

-     2004 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Monterey, CA, USA, June 20-26, 2004. http://www.ieeeaps.org/

-     2005 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Washing­ton, DC, USA, July 5-9, 2005, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.ieeeaps.org/

-      2004 Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2004), Nanjing, China, August 23-27, 2004. http://www.piers.org/

-     XXVIIIth General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science, New Delhi, India, October 23-29, 2005.

-     2006 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting,

Albuquerque, NM, USA, June 2006. http://www.ieeeaps.org/

-     2007 URSI International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory, Alexandria, Egypt, May 2007.

Latest information on various activities related to IEEJ/IEICE Technical Committee on Electromagnetic The­ory (EMT) and IEICE Technical Committees on Antennas and Propagation (A^.P) and Microwaves (MW) can be obtained from the IEICE web site (in Japanese) at

EMT: http://www.ieice.org/~emt/jpn/

A^.P: http://www.ieice.org/cs/ap/jpn/

MW: http://www.ieice.org/es/mw/jpn/

3. URSI Commission B International Electromagnetics Prize

URSI Commission B has established, with the approval of the URSI Board of Officers, the “International Electromagnetics Prize” to be awarded annually. The prize is US$10,000 plus a commemorative plaque and is sponsored by the Summa Foundation. It is awarded for an accurate approximate solution of a desig­nated scattering or related problem in electromagnetics and is presented at an appropriate URSI meeting. The 2003 Prize topic has been announced on September 15, 2001, and entries in the specified format must be received by January 15, 2003 (see URSI web page: http://www.intec.rug.ac.be/ursi/EM%20Prize.htm). Submissions from all scientists are welcome except an officer or director of the Summa Foundation, a member of　the Prize panel, or one of their immediate working associates.

 

4. URSI Commission B Technical Advisory Board

Based on the discussion at the business meeting during the 2001 URSI International Symposium on Electro­magnetic Theory held in Victoria, Canada in May 2001, URSI Commission B recently formed a work­ing group named the Commission B Technical Advisory Board (B-TAB) to promote various Commis­sion B activities. The B-TAB will discuss the issues related to future triennial Electromagnetic The­ory Symposia as well as other additional conference activities in which Commission B is involved. Prof. M. Ando of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Commission B Vice-Chair, serves as Chair of B-TAB. The selection of the B-TAB members has been completed and the B-TAB consists of 17 members as of January 2002, among whom Prof. M. Tateiba of Kyushu University and Prof. K. Kobayashi of Chuo University are members selected from Japan.

5. XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science

The XXVIIth triennial URSI General Assembly (URSI-GA’02) was held on August 17-24, 2002 at Exhibition & Congress Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, where there was a total of about 1,300 participants (total number of participants from Japan: approximately 180). Papers from 51 different countries were accepted for presentation, where the numbers of accepted papers in the descending order in terms of countries were, 321 (USA), 196 (Japan), 123 (France), 121 (Russia), 83 (UK), 78 (Germany), 71 (The Netherlands), 62 (Italy), 32 (Canada), etc. During the URSI-GA’02, several Commission B business meetings were held. The details discussed at the business meetings are given on pp. 4-5.

 

THE URSI COMMISSION B BUSINESS MEETINGS

Maastricht, 19, 21 and 23 August 2002

MINUTES

 

Present:

Prof. S. Ström, Commission B, Chair

Prof. M. Ando, Commission B, Vice-Chair

About 50 members of Commission B

Schedule:

Business meeting I:            18:00-19:00, 19 August 2002

Business meeting II:         18:00-19:00, 21 August 2002

Business meeting III:         18:15-20:00, 23 August 2002

 

The Commission B Chair Prof. Staffan Strom opens the meeting at 18:00 p.m. on Monday 19 August 2002 and welcomes all members who are interested in and supporting Commission B activities.

6.Young Scientist Reception (if invited) Bus starts at 18:55

 

1.      Completion of the vote concerning Commission B incoming vice-chair

An important point on the agenda was the completion of the vote concerning incoming vice-chair. The result was that Prof. Lotfollah Shafai was elected, with Prof. Roberto Tiberio as alternate. (the URSI Council subsequently appointed Prof. Makoto Ando and Prof. Shafai as Commission B chair and vice-chair respectively, for the triennium 2002-2005).

 

2.      Discussion of the GA Proceedings, of a proposal to merge RRS and RSB, and of publishing the RSB on the web

Dr. W. Ross Stone, URSI Publications Committee chair explained the publication-related questions.

・How have CD-ROM Proceedings and the Program booklet with 100 words Abstracts been received ?

The changes were substantially supported with the exception of incomplete linkage to authors and the too small font-size for abstracts.

・Should the Review of Radio Science be incorporated into the Radio Science Bulletin?

This was generally supported, especially in view of the possibility of a wider distribution for the contents of RRS and of having the present RRS papers indexed in INSPEC. It was also noted that the reviews would be more timely and the new material would enhance RSB considerably. The contents should be review articles so that there would not be a direct competition with Radio Science.  

・Should the Radio science Bulletin be made available on the Web ?

Various advantages were discussed, such as availability of back-numbers, wider distribution, reduction of printing and mailing costs and also enhancing the number of URSI correspondents.

 

3.      Discussion of a proposed new format for Abstracts of papers submitted to the next GA: 4 pages

For the 2002 GA, text only Abstracts were submitted for review, and a final version of the manuscript with the maximum of 4 pages +100 word abstract was requested for each accepted paper. The proposal of the new format for submission to the next GA in 2005, was that 4-page manuscripts should be submitted once for both review and the proceedings. This proposal received substantial support.

 

4.      Commission B Editor for RRS/RRB 2002-2005

Prof. R. Ziolkowski of the University of Arizona was appointed as Commission B Editor for RRS/RRB 2002-2005 (Dr. Ross Stone emphasized that the Commission Editors should select review topics and authors ASAP).

 

5.      Special Section in Radio Science, based on papers presented at the 2001 Victoria EMT.

Prof. A. Ishimaru reported on the current status of the editing of this Special Section in Radio Science. Prof. A. Ishimaru of Washington University is Co-Editor, together with Prof. S. Strom of Royal Institute of Technology, for this Special Section. Twenty one papers had been accepted and six more are under revision. The Special Section will appear in the 2002 Nov.-Dec. issue of Radio Science. 

 

6.      Presentation of the Italian proposal to host the 2007 EMTS

Prof. G. Manara of University Pisa made a presentation of a proposal to hold the 2007 URSI ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY SYMPOSIUM (EMTS) in Pisa, Italy. The symposium could take place at the Congress Centre of the University of Pisa. Additional information on the proposal can be found at the following web address: www.ing.unipi.it/MRL/URSI

The Chair, Prof. S. Strom, added that Commission B had received only one proposal for 2007 EMT-S and that the proposal had been reviewed and  recommended by the Commission B ad hoc committee for EMTS proposals. After some questions and discussions, the Italian proposal was accepted by Commission B.

 

7.      Discussion of related questions concerning future EMTS

The Chair, Prof. S. Strom, first explained that the upcoming 2004 EMTS was projected to bring about a break in a trend of somewhat decreased participation in EMTS series. He mentioned that the Commission B Chair and Vice-chair had discussed and assessed with Prof. S.E. El-Khamy, Chair of the local organizing committee of 2004 EMTS in Alexandria, the apprehension expressed by many members of the Commission B community concerning the latest political situation in neighboring Middle East areas. They also were in contact with Prof. G. Manara and his colleagues, who were behind the Italian proposal concerning the 2007 EMTS. With this background, the following was proposed by the Commission B Chair. 

The venues/organizers of the 2004 and the 2007 EMTS are switched, so that instead of Alexandria in 2004 and Pisa in 2007, the 2004 EMTS will take place in Pisa in the last week of May (tentative) and the 2007 EMTS will take place in Alexandria.

The proposal was approved unanimously by the meeting.

Furthermore, Commission B resolved unanimously to thank the Egyptian and Italian delegates for their gracious and constructive collaboration in reaching the above-mentioned consensus decision. Finally, the Chair brought the very tight schedule of less than two years for the preparation of 2004 EMTS in Pisa to the attention. 

 

8.      Best young scientist paper (BYSP) award

The chair announced that Dr.Maurizio Bozzi of Univ. of Pavia who was a YSA recipient and a member of the Commission B community, had won the Philips’ best young scientist paper (BYSP) award. The meeting congratulated Dr. Bozzi to his award.

 

9.      The Commission B Technical Advisory Board (B-TAB):

The Vice chair, Prof. Ando explained the mission and role of Commission B Technical Advisory Board (B-TAB), which is a follow-up of the discussion that started at the 2001 EMTS in Victoria, Canada. The role of TAB is to discuss the future directions of study topics of Commission B and take the necessary action for realizing it. TAB investigate,

·            Long-term directions of technical program. Advice and support to Technical Program Committees (TPC) of EMT-Symposia. and GA.

·            Possible cooperation with other Commissions and Societies. (SIAM was suggested in Victoria)

·            How to attract and motivate young engineers or students in electromagnetics and/or related fields.

The current member list as well as the action time-table was announced.  All the members are solicited to support B-TAB discussion.

 

10.  Announcement of URSI Commission B Electromagnetic Prize

The present status of the Electromagnetic Prize with the first problem appearing on the web on September 15, 2001 and with the deadline of 15 January, 2003 was announced.

The second problem will be announced soon. During the next triennium after this GA, the panel that will evaluate the entries consists of Prof. Tom Senior, Dr Carl Baum, Prof Chalmers Butler, Prof. Karl Langenberg, and the Commission B (Past) Chair Staffan Strom.

 

11.  Inter-commission working group (IWG) on Solar Power Satellites (SPS)

Formation of an IWG was proposed by Commission H.  Microwave power transmission from space to earth is a challenging technology for Commission B and active participation by scientists from the Commission B community is expected. Several experts had applied upon the solicitation and their names were transmitted to the Commission H.