Johnson named new ECE Chair
He will assume the position held by Professor Robert Lee for the past seven years. Lee is the new director of the SIMCenter. (Read more about the SIMCenter here.)
Johnson is a professor in ECE and at the ElectroScience Laboratory. He joined the department in 1996. His research interests are in the areas of microwave remote sensing, radar systems, propagation, and electromagnetic wave theory.
He has been the principal and/or co-investigator on numerous research projects, including projects sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and NASA.
He currently serves on the Science Team of NASA’s Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) and Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) missions. He has authored and co-authored more than 95 journal articles and book chapters, as well as 225 conference papers and abstracts in these areas.
Johnson was named an IEEE Fellow in 2008. His awards have included the Stanley E. Harrison Award for Excellence in Engineering Education from the College of Engineering in 2006, the Booker Fellowship from the U.S. National Committee of International Union of Radio Science in 2002, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 1997, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 1997.
He served as chair of the IEEE GRS Society’s Frequency Allocation for Remote Sensing Technical Committee from 2005-09. He has served on URSI Commission B Technical Advances Committee since 1999 and is an elected member of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), Commissions B and F. He has been associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing since 2001 and on the editorial board of Waves in Random and Complex Media since 2002.
Johnson received his PhD and MS degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 and 1993, respectively. He earned his BS in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991.
Professor Lee has led the department through major changes during his time as chair, including:
- Climbing in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of the best ECE departments in the country from 26th in 2007 to 18th in 2014.
- Expanding research funding from $12 million in 2007 to a peak of $24 million in 2011.
- Expanding department faculty by more than 20 percent, increasing the number of female faculty members and female undergraduates, and growing undergraduate enrollment from 650 to nearly 1,000 students. ECE also increased the number of graduate students from fewer than 300 to more than 400.
- Launching the “flipped classroom” concept. Students prepare for class by studying taped lectures and other materials outside the classroom and use class time for more hands-on work and discussions.
- Revamping the sophomore experience to ensure better student retention and higher caliber educational outcomes. And, along with the rest of the university, ECE transitioned from a quarter-based system to semesters.
- Opened the new ElectroScience Laboratory building and the Center for High Performance Power Electronics.
- Received funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to open a University Transportation Center to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles.