Ulrich Jakobus Named IEEE Fellow

Dr Ulrich Jakobus, FEKO Product Manager and Director of EM Software & Systems–S.A. (Pty) Ltd has been named an IEEE Fellow. He is being recognised for leadership in hybrid computational tool development and commercialisation. (November 2012)

Dr Jakobus’ leadership over the past two decades had a lasting impact on the productivity of electromagnetic applications engineers all over the world. His contributions brought hybrid computational electromagnetic tools to practice and transformed these into FEKO, a successful commercial package.  FEKO is now an industry standard in electromagnetic (EM) analysis software.

"It is great to hear that Ulrich has been named an IEEE Fellow.  It is not every day that one gets such important news and it is really an accolade to be very proud of.  This honour is in recognition of long hours and dedication and comes well deserved," says Gronum Smith, director of EM Software & Systems-S.A. (Pty) Ltd.

Technical contributions and academic work
Dr Jakobus led the development of the highly successful commercial electromagnetic computer code FEKO. FEKO originated in 1991 from research activities of Dr Jakobus at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. It is a hybrid code combining the full wave solution, method of moments (MoM) and high frequency asymptotic techniques (Physical Optics (PO) and Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD)) for radiation, scattering, microwave circuits and EMI/EMC evaluations. Due to computational resources required, full wave solutions such as MoM, though accurate are suitable only for analysing electrically small, but complex problems, whereas asymptotic techniques such PO and UTD, though approximate, are suitable for electrically large structures (100s of wavelengths in size). Dr Jakobus was instrumental in not only developing the hybrid methodologies but for the first time he also integrated these methodologies into a software package that can handle both electrically small and large structures. Hybridisation also provided for the first time multiscale electromagnetic analysis. In this case, some parts of the problem that are complex and electrically small, are analysed by full wave solutions. The rest of structure (that is electrically large) can be analysed via asymptotic solutions. Dr Jakobus’ ground breaking contributions led to a new paradigm in commercial EM simulations, making it possible to include platform effects (such as automobile, aircraft, ships etc.) in evaluating antenna performance (something not possible before).

Awards, publications and memberships
Dr Jakobus obtained his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1991 and his PhD from the same university in 1994, respectively. In 1999 he obtained his habilitation and venia legendi (formal qualification as university lecturer) and status “Privatdozent” at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, for the subject “Radio Frequency Technology”. Since 2000 he is with EM Software & Systems where in his roles of Director and FEKO Product Manager he is responsible for the continued development and commercialisation of FEKO.

He has more than 150 national and international publications in journals, books and conference proceedings. His research activities were honoured by numerous prizes and awards, amongst others the 1992 VDE Prize of the Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker, the Research Prize of the Anton- and Klara-Röser Foundation 1995, the DEVMT price 1995 of the German Society for EMC Technology, the 1996 ACES outstanding paper award, and the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Prize 1998 of the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Dr Jakobus is a member of the Informationstechnische Gesellschaft (ITG) in the Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker e.V. (VDE), the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) and is an elected member of commission B (field and waves) of URSI (Union Radio Scientifique Internationale).

About The IEEE
The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognised by the technical community as a prestigious honour and an important career achievement. 298 individuals have been elevated to IEEE Fellow for 2013.

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