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, a Full Member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), 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 Up and Coming Researcher of the Year Award by Howard University as one of its  Inaugural Excellence in Innovation and Academic Achievement Awards in 2025, and 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. He also served as a Chair/Member of Organizing Committee, Technical Program Committee, and Session Organizer for numerous international conferences.