Professor Karu Esselle

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

 

Immediate Past Associate Dean – Higher Degree Research and

Founding Chair of Postgraduate Research Committee, 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 Measurement Facility (AusAMF)

 

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photo of Karu Esselle Karu Esselle is the Immediate Past Associate Dean – Higher Degree Research and the Founding Director of Postgraduate Research Committee in the Division of Information and Communication Sciences, which consisted of four departments. He held these positions in Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, from 2003 to 2008 and was also a member of the Division Executive.  He is the Director of the Centre for Electromagnetic and Antenna Engineering (CELANE), and the Deputy Director of the Research Centre on Microwave and Wireless Applications (CMWA), which has been recently expanded after been recognised by the University as a Concentration of Research Excellence (CORE). The CELANE, which Karu founded, has provided a stimulating research environment for a strong team of researchers including six postdoctoral fellows, about ten PhD students, and several Visiting/Adjunct Professors since 2002.  In the same period, Karu was involved with research grants and contracts worth about 4.4 million dollars, and his research team members attracted further grants worth about a million dollars. Karu has authored over 230 scientific publications, including five invited book chapters and over fifteen invited conference presentations. He has been invited to serve 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), Academy of Finland and Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, the Hong-Kong University Grants Commission and the Chilean government research funding agency - National Fund for Scientific & Technological Development (FONDECYT). In Australia, he has been invited to assess grant applications submitted for the nation’s most prestigious schemes such as Australian Federation Fellowships and Australian Laureate Fellowships in addition to standard Australian Research Council Discovery and Linkage schemes.

 

Karu led the establishment of a $600,000 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), Optus Networks, Locata (USA)/QX Corporation, ResMed, FundEd and Katherine-Werke (Germany) through Peter-Maxwell Solicitors.

 

Karu’s recent awards include the 2009 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision (the very first such award ever offered in Macquarie University), Macquarie University 2004 (Inaugural) Innovation Award for best invention disclose, the 2002 Senior Researcher Award from Raj Mittra Travel Grant Committee, IEEE AP-S Society, USA, and a Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale (URSI) Young Scientist Award. His postgraduate students and research associates have also received prestigious awards such as IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowships, URSI Young Scientist Awards, IEEE NSW Max Simons Best Paper Awards, WARS Best Paper Awards and Macquarie University LUCID best paper awards. Several independent external experts have ranked a few Karu’s PhD students in the top 5% or top 10% in the world, when examining their PhD theses.

 

Karu has served in nearly all Macquarie University HDR-related committees at the highest level, including the Higher Degree Research Committee, Research Training Panel, Thesis Examination Sub-Committee and Program and Examination Sub-Committee, in addition to leading and chairing such committees at the division level. He was one of the nine Macquarie University delegates travelled to China, in 2007, with the Deputy Vice Chancellor, to built research linkages with top Chinese universities. Karu is a regular referee for nearly all international journals in his area. Karu has been invited to serve, and served, in international panels such as IEEE panels to select the best IEEE AP Chapter in the world. Karu is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Antennas and Propagation. 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.  Karu has given invited lectures to many prestigious research groups around globe (USA, UK, Canada, France, Italy, China etc.) and he was visited by distinguished researchers including Professors Raj Mittra (Pen State, USA), Maria Stuchly (Victoria, Canada) and Tapan Sarkar (Syracuse, USA). He was an organizer and the Publicity Chair of the 2000 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC) and has been invited to become the Technical Program Chair of the 2012 APMC to be held in Melbourne. He is the current Chair of the IEEE New South Wales MTT/AP Joint Chapter, the immediate 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 Counsellor at present.

 

Karu’s current research interests include metamaterials and their microwave applications, photonic crystals and photonic band gap (PBG)/ electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structures; microwave antennas based on EBG concept; 1-D, 2-D and 3-D periodic structures including frequency selective surfaces and partially reflecting surfaces (PRS), antennas for wireless communication systems including WiFi, WiMAX, HyperLAN, other WLAN and ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, antennas for next-generation integrated mobile communication systems and multi-signal location and navigation 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, Luneburg 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, for example in the University of Calgary, University of Victoria, CSIRO Australia, Public University of Navarra (Spain), University of Kent, University of Sheffield, CRC Canada, University of Delhi and Lund University (Sweden). 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 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, with a nearly perfect GPA. 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 Electronic Engineering 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, the University of Moratuwa Scholarship for the best first-year student in 1980 and the Sri Lanka – Philippines Friendship scholarship for the best student in 1981.

IEEE ‘M (1992), SM (1996)

 

Contact Information:

Office phone: +61 2 9850 9141

Email (easy): karu AT ieee DOT org

Email (sure): karu DOT esselle AT mq DOT edu DOT au

Skype ID: karu.esselle

Yahoo Messenger r ID: karu_esselle

 

HDR_Award_small.jpgKaru receiving the 2008 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision, in April 2009. This is the first time such an award was given in Macquarie University.

 

Karu also received the Macquarie University’s first Innovation Award for Best Invention Disclosure at the Inaugural Innovation Awards in 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bd14866_  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 domestic/local (Australian and New Zealand) students. Most scholarships cover full tuition fee and include an excellent living allowance (about A$20,000 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 CSIRO are available (~ A$7,000 per year). For additional income and experience; teaching assistantship (tutor/lab demonstrator/marker) 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 A$20,000 in total, for conference travel etc. Please contact Karu as soon as possible if you are interested in postgraduate research (i.e. HDR) 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.

bd14866_  CURRENT RESEARCH PROGRAMS: Research I have been engaged in recently.

bd14866_  OTHER ACTIVITIES: Professional and Administration duties

bd14866_  PUBLICATIONS: List of recent publications

bd14866_  RESEARCH GRANTS: List of recent research grants awarded

bd14866_  EXPERIENCE: Academic, Research, Professional and Industrial

bd14866_  QUALIFICATIONS & AWARDS: Awards, Fellowships, Scholarships and Degrees

bd14866_  TEACHING: Subjects taught in Macquarie

bd14866_  MY COOL LINKS: You know what I mean.

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