Background
Professor J. (Yiannis) C. Vardaxoglou. established the 36 year old Wireless Communications Research (WiCR) group at Loughborough University and founded the Centre for Mobile Communications Research (CMCR).
He was the director of the Symeta research centre funded by an EPSRC Grand Challenge award, researching in a wide-ranging topics applicable to cutting-edge wireless communications technology.
His current research focuses primarily on metamaterial structures, additive manufacturing (3D printing) for RF/micro/mm wave engineering. Symeta collaborates with many internationally leading companies and universities. He was awarded a prestigious EPSRC’s Grand Challenge £5M (FEC) award: Synthesizing 3D Metamaterials for RF, Microwave and THz Applications.
He has served as a consultant to various industries, holds six patents and is the founder/technical director of Antrum Ltd. He has attracted research funding from industry and has been awarded 20 EPSRC research grants. He has published over 400 refereed journals and conference proceeding papers (with over 10000 citations) and has written a seminal book on Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS).
He was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the IET’s Antennas and Propagation Professional Network in the UK and chaired the IEEE’s distinguish lecturer program of the Antennas and Propagation Society (APS) for five years. In 2005, he founded the prestigious Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference (LAPC). He has chaired numerous IEE//IET events and has served on the Steering Committee of the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCAP. He was the General Chair of EuCAP ‘07. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers (FREng) and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FIEEE).
Qualifications and awards
University education at the University of Kent BSc Mathematical Physics (1982) and PhD Electronics (1985). Joined Loughborough University as a lecturer in 1988. Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1992 and Professor in 1998. Head/Dean of School 2006 - 2012. Emeritus Professor since 2020.
- Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng)
- Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE)
- Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
Broad interests and expertise
- Wireless Communications
- Fixed and mobile communication systems
- Microwave and mm-wave engineering
Research interests and activities
- Metamaterials
- Frequency-selective surfaces
- Antennas
- Optical control of microwaves
- 3D printing materials and characterisation
He has pioneered developments in the research, design and applications of frequency selective surfaces (FSS) and antennas, and a number of his innovations have been exploited by industry. His broad interests and expertise includes wireless communications, fixed and mobile communication systems and microwave and mm-wave engineering. His research interests include metamaterials, antennas, wearable electronics and 3D printing (additive manufacturing) for RF, microwave and mmwave electronics.
His work on frequency selective surfaces and his discovery of associated closely-coupled surface effects led to efficient electromagnetic (EM) screen designs, which are crucial for low radar cross section radomes. These EM screen designs were exploited by both BAE Systems and Chelton Radomes. He has worked on metamaterials and has promoted this innovative technology widely across Europe.
Furthermore, he established the Wireless Communications Research (WiCR) group at Loughborough University. This WiCR group has had research breakthroughs on novel planar metamaterials using negative refractive index (NRI) materials. He was first to publish uniplanar surface designs that exhibit negative effective refractive index at microwave and mm-wave frequencies.
Further, he was first to publish completely planar artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) surfaces that are simultaneously electromagnetic band gap structures for surface wave suppression. He has published in excess of 300 papers and has attracted £15M in research grants and contacts from EPSRC, EU and industry.
Prof. Vardaxoglou has an ongoing collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA/ESTEC), The Netherlands, on many projects. They commissioned his WiCR Group to research the analysis and design of electromagnetic band gap (EBG) and artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) surfaces and the applications of these and other classes of metamaterials to achieve highly efficient and lightweight leaky-wave antennas for inter-satellite links.
Moreover, with a DTI Smart award (granted to Antrum Ltd) and an ESA contract, his WICR group has developed antenna technologies that exploit metamaterials in flexible antennas for search and rescue applications. He has taught extensively in communications related topics at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, directed mainly towards electromagnetic aspects, including antennas and microwave engineering.
These topics at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels have included courses on antennas and radar, electromagnetic compatibility and microwave and optical transmission.
Grants and contracts
- (EP/E006213/1) “Enhancing Networks and Wireless Research at Loughborough University’s Communications Research Group - A Case for Platform Grant Support” 2010, 5 years 537,146
- EP/I01490X/1 Synthetic metamaterials using metallic nanoparticles at microwave frequencies, £496k, November 2011, 3 years. 344,000
- (J12748) IeMRC: High performance flexible, fabric electronics for MHz frequency communications, October 2011, 3 years 392,000
- (J13042) KTP/Antrum Ltd: USB DTV tuner aerial research and development, May 2011, 1 year. 56,000
- European Space Agency/Spinlock/Antrum Wearable antennas for life jackets in search and rescue COSPAS/SARSAT, 900,000
- (EP/N010493/1) EPSRC Grand Challenge 3 - Engineering across Length Scales SYnthesizing 3D METAmaterials for RF, microwave and THz applications (SYMETA) 2016-2021, 5,013,000
- (EP/S030301/1) Anisotropic Microwave/Terahertz Metamaterials for Satellite Applications (ANISAT) 531,000
He has been the past Chair of the IEEE AP-S Distinguished Lecturer Program. He has been either the Chair or a member of the organizing committee for numerous prestigious international IEEE and IEE/IET Conferences. He was originally involved heavily with the former bi-annual International Conference on Antennas and Propagation (ICAP) which was one of the two conferences that paved the way to the formation of the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation.
It was under his chairmanship that the IET’s professional network on antennas and propagation promoted and influenced the network which eventually formed EUCAP. He has had a significant leadership role in the organization and implementation of the EUCAP series. He was the General Chair of the second and very successful 2006 EUCAP event in Edinburgh, Scotland. He also established the extremely successful annual Loughborough Antennas and Propagation Conference (LAPC). He was awarded with a prestigious EPSRC’s Grand Challenge £5M (FEC) award: Synthesizing 3D Metamaterials for RF, Microwave and THz Applications, SYMETA.
- EPSRC College Member
- Steering Committee member of Seventeenth International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena – Metamaterials 2023
- Visiting Researcher, Wireless Communications Laboratory
- Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications
- National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos" Athens, Greece
- Visiting Professor at Siena and Salerno Universities, Italy, City University, Hong Kong