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Headshot photo of Su Yan
Faculty
Faculty

Su Yan, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

  • Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, CEA
  • College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA)

Biography

Dr. Su Yan received his B.S. degree in Electromagnetics and Microwave Technology from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, in 2005, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), Urbana, IL, USA, in 2012 and 2016, respectively.

From August 2016 to July 2018, Dr. Yan worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Instructor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UIUC. In August 2018, he joined the Howard University in Washington, DC, USA, as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in August 2024. In June 2020, Dr. Yan was appointed Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Howard University. Since October 2023, he has served as Director of the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center. He has authored or co-authored over 120 papers in refereed journals and conferences, contributed to three book chapters, and edited one book. His research interests include nonlinear electromagnetics and multiphysics problems, extreme-scale and multi-scale algorithms for electromagnetic scattering and radiation, numerical methods in electromagnetic design and optimization, computational imaging, and the application of machine learning in scientific computing.

Dr. Yan is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Full Member of the US National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science (USNC-URSI) Commission B, and a Life Member of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES). He was a recipient of the DOE Early Career Award in 2024, the NSF Early Career Award in 2023, and the ACES Early Career Award in 2020 for his contributions to linear and nonlinear electromagnetic and multiphysics modeling and simulation methods. Additionally, he was the recipient of the P. D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award and the Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Research Award by UIUC in 2015 and 2014, respectively. Dr. Yan also received the Edward E. Altschuler AP-S Magazine Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society in 2020, the Best Student Paper Award (The First Place Winner) at the IEEE ICWITS/ACES 2016 Conference in Honolulu, HI, USA, the USNC/URSI Travel Fellowship Grant Award from the National Academies in 2015, the Best Student Paper Award (The First Place Winner) at the 27th International Review of Progress in ACES in Williamsburg, VA, USA, in 2011, and the Best Student Paper Award from the IEEE Chengdu Section in 2010. He serves on the Board of Directors for ACES from 2024 to 2027, is an Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letter, IEEE Access, and the International Journal of Numerical Modelling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, and a Reviewer for multiple journals and conferences. Dr. Yan has also served as a Guest Editor for the International Journal of Numerical Modelling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields and as Lead Guest Editor for the International Journal of Antennas and Propagation.

Education & Expertise

Education

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ph.D.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2016

Expertise

Computational Electromagnetics and Multiphysics

Academics

Academics

EECE 260 – Engineering Programming and Application

EECE 305 – Fundamentals of Electromagnetics

EECE 306 – Fundamentals of Electromagnetics Laboratory

EECE 310 – Principles of Electronics

EECE 466 – Advanced Electromagnetic Theory

EECE 501 – Graduate Seminar

EECE 520 – Electromagnetic Theory

EECE 629 – Numerical Tech for Electromagnetics

EECE 695 – Special Topics in Microwaves

Research

Research

Specialty

Computational Electromagnetics and Multiphysics

Accomplishments

Accomplishments

DOE Early Career Award

U.S. Department of Energy, 2024

NSF Early Career Award

U.S. National Science Foundation, 2023

ACES Early Career Award

“For contributions to linear and nonlinear electromagnetic and multiphysics modeling and simulation methods." Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES), 2020

Edward E. Altschuler AP-S Magazine Prize Paper Award

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, 2020

Outstanding Reviewer

Journal of Computational Physics, November, 2018

Best Student Paper Award

The First Place Winner, ACES, Honolulu, HI, 2016

USNC/URSI Travel Fellowship Grant Award

The National Academies (NAS), 2015

P. D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015

Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Research Award

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014

Best Student Paper Award

The First Place Winner, ACES, Williamsburg, VA, 2011

Best Student Paper Award

IEEE Chengdu Section, 2010