Professor Karu Esselle

PhD Ottawa, MASc Ottawa, BScEng Moratuwa, SMIEE, MIEAust

Division Director and Chair of Higher Degree Research, Division of ICS

Director of the Centre for Electromagnetic and Antenna Engineering (CELANE)

Deputy Director, Centre for Microwave and Wireless Applications (CMWA)

Chair, Management Board, Australian Antenna Measuremet Facility (AusAMF)

Karu Esselle is the Founding Director of Higher Degree Research in the Division of Information and Communication Sciences, which consist of four Departments, and the Director of the Centre for Electromagnetic and Antenna Engineering (CELANE), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He is a member of the Division Executive and also the Deputy Director of the Divisional Research Centre on Microwave and Wireless Applications (CMWA). The CELANE, which Karu founded, has provided a stimulating research environment for a strong team of researchers including five postdoctoral fellows, eight PhD students, and several Visiting/Adjunct Professors since 2002. In the same period, Karu was involved with research grants and contracts worth over three million dollars, and his research team members attracted further grants worth about a million dollars. Karu has co-authored over 180 papers, including five invited book chapters. He has served as an international expert/ research grant assessor for several overseas nationwide research grant schemes/organisations including the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Dutch research council) and the Hong-Kong University Grants Commission, in addition to Australian Research Council. He led the establishment of a national antenna testing facility, AusAMF, funded by the Australian Research Council, Macquarie University and six other collaborating institutions, and he is currently directing this facility as the Chair of the Management Board. His industry experience includes full-time employment as a Faculty Hire Design Expert by the Hewlett Packard Laboratory, Palo Alto, USA, and several consultancies for local and international companies including Cisco Systems (USA) and Locata/QX Corporation and ResMed. His recent awards include the Macquarie University Inaugural Innovation Award for best invention disclose and a Senior Researcher Award from Raj Mittra Travel Grant Committee, IEEE AP-S Society, USA. His postgraduate students and research associates have also received prestigious awards such as IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowships, IEEE NSW best student paper (Max Symon) awards and URSI Young Scientist Awards.

Karu is a regular referee for nearly all international journals in his area. He has also served in technical program committees or international committees for many international conferences including IEEE AP-S Int. Symp., IEEE Vehicular Technology Int. Symp., EUROEM, APMC, PIERS, AMEREM, IASTED ARP, AusWireless and DSPCS, and organised special sessions in IEEE AP-S Int. Symp. and PIERS. He was an organizer and the Publicity Chair of the 2000 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference. He is the former Chair of the IEEE New South Wales MTT/AP Joint Chapter from 1999 to 2002, past Chair of the Educational Activities Committee of the IEEE NSW Section, and a member of the IEEE NSW Executive Committee. Karu initiated the formation of the IEEE Student Brach at Macquarie University and he serves as the Branch Counselor at present.

Karu’s current research interests include metamaterials and their microwave applications, photonic crystals and PBG/EBG structures, microwave antennas based on EBG concept, frequency selective surfaces, antennas for wireless communication systems including WLANs and ultrawideband (UWB) systems, dielectric-resonator (DR) antennas, broadband and multi-band printed antennas, smart antenna systems, hybrid dielectric and patch antennas, novel semi-numerical methods such as the Coupled Field Expansion Method (CFEM) for planar 2D periodic surfaces, Luneberg lenses and focal-plane-array antennas for radio astronomy, moment methods for DR, hybrid, microstrip and slot antennas, FDTD methods for photonic crystal circuits and antennas, enhanced FDTD methods for thin metal films, strips, and high-speed digital circuits, and complex image methods and closed-form Green’s functions for layered structures. Karu has collaborated with many prestigious research groups in the world, in the University of Calgary, University of Victoria, CSIRO Australia, University of Kent, University of Sheffield, CRC Canada, University of Delhi, Lund University Sweden etc. His research has been sponsored by many organizations that include the Australian Research Council, Australian Academy of Sciences, the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism, Australian Telecommunications and Electronics Research Board, Macquarie University and industry. Karu’s and his team’s research activities of are posted in the web at http://www.elec.mq.edu.au/celane/.

Karu received the BSc degree in electronic and telecommunication engineering, with First Class Honours, in 1983 from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. He received the MASc and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 1987 and 1990, respectively. From 1984 to 1985, he was an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Moratuwa. He was a research assistant at the University of Ottawa from 1987 to 1990, and a Canadian Government laboratory Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow from 1990 to 1992. In 1992, he joined Macquarie University, Sydney where he is a full Professor in Electronics at present. He was a Visiting Professor of the University of Victoria, Canada, in 1996/7 and a Visiting Scientist of the CSIRO ICT Centre in 2002 and 2005. He was awarded a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship from 1985 to 1990, an URSI Young Scientist Award in 1990, and the Senior Researcher Award from Raj Mittra Travel Grant panel of IEEE AP-S in 2002. He is a Senior Member of IEEE (since 1996) and an URSI Radioscientist (since 1990).

IEEE ‘M (1992), SM (1996)

NEWS: SCHOLARSHIPS and POSTGRADUATE (PhD) RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES.

Scholarships available for PhD students include MQRES and IPRS scholarships for overseas (international) students, and MQRES and APA scholarships for local (Australian and New Zealand) students. Most scholarships cover full tuition fee and include an excellent living allowance (about A$19,000 per year) that is tax-free. These are offered for students with First Class Honours degrees (or equivalent qualifications) and strong academic achievements (many As or Ds in the academic record). For highly qualified applicants, additional supplementary scholarships from ICS and CSIRO are available (from A$5,000 to A$12,000 per year). For additional income and experience, teaching assistantship positions are also available for both international and local postgraduate students. Our PhD students are eligible to apply for research support funding, up to about $15,000 in total, for conference travel etc. Please contact Karu as soon as possible if you are interested in postgraduate scholarships.

CENTRE for ELECTROMAGNETIC and ANTENNA ENGINEERING (CELANE) HOME PAGE: All about our research and partners.

CELANE is part of the Divisional Research Centre on Microwave and Wireless Applications (CMWA) established in October 2007.

CURRENT RESEARCH PROGRAMS: Research I have been engaged in recently.

OTHER ACTIVITIES: Professional and Administration duties

PUBLICATIONS: List of recent publications

RESEARCH GRANTS: List of recent research grants awarded

EXPERIENCE: Academic, Research, Professional and Industrial

QUALIFICATIONS & AWARDS: Awards, Fellowships, Scholarships and Degrees

TEACHING: Subjects taught in Macquarie

MY COOL LINKS: You know what I mean.

CONTACT DETAILS: Email, Telephone, Fax, Snail Mail.