About Julien Perruisseau-Carrier

By J. R. Mosig, M. Martínez-Váquez, and M. Mattes

Reprinted with permission from IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 3, June 2014

Prof. Julien Perruisseau-Carrier passed away on June 6, 2014, at the age of 34.

Of Swiss and French nationalities, Julien was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 30, 1979. In 1998, he started his university studies at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, from where he got his Electrical Engineering MSc in 2003. The colleagues, mentors, and teachers who knew Julien during his undergraduate studies quickly recognized in him a very clever mind, combining outstanding human, scientific, and leadership qualities.

After a short detour in 2003 through the University of Birmingham, UK, where he was a short-term researcher in the group of Prof. Peter Hall, Julien became a Research Assistant at the Laboratoire d'Electromagnétisme et d'Acoustique (LEMA) of EPFL. From 2004 to 2007, he worked there on his PhD thesis, Microwave Periodic Structures Based on MicroElec troMechanical Systems (MEMS) and Micromachining Techniques, under the supervision of Prof. A. Skrivervik. This research activity, supported by several European Union projects, earned him the EPFL Docteur ès Sciences (PhD) in 2007.

All those who shared this period of Julien's life will always keep fond memories of him. Julien was always available for help and advice. Any random encounter in the LEMA corridors could finish with a drink in the EE cafeteria, where Julien showed his broad interests by discussing topics far away from science and technology. His dialectic mastery, his enthusiasm and commitment, his ironic sense of humor, and his ubiquitous wry smile will always remain with us.

With his PhD in pocket, Julien moved to the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), Barcelona, Spain. There, as a Postdoctoral Fellow (2007-2011), he greatly enlarged the scope of his expertise, going beyond electro magnetics and mastering subjects in signal processing and telecommunication systems, so valuable nowadays for antenna engineers. In Barcelona, he also made a new set of deeply committed life friends, and he mastered Spanish, which became his second tongue.

In 2011, Julien won a four-year Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Professorship Grant, and he was able to come back as a Professor to his alma mater, EPFL-Switzerland. Hosted by two EPFL Laboratories, LEMA and NanoLab, Julien created his own research group "Adaptive MicroNano Wave Systems," and started a very promising and brilliant academic activity. His research covered interdisciplinary and frontier topics in electromagnetic wave theory, signal processing, and applications from microwaves to THz. This included subjects such as emerging micro- and nano-technologies such as graphene, MEMS, or NEMS; dynamic reconfiguration and adaptability of antennas; MIMO systems and joint antenna- coding for reduced complexity of mobile terminals; and metama terials and metasurfaces. This mixture of somehow eclectic fields was a clear proof of Julien's ability to integrate new approaches, anticipate future trends, and suggest disruptive solutions. Julien was not a follower but a pioneer, aiming at a change of paradigm in antenna design.

In his short professional life, Julien accomplished what many of us cannot but dream of realizing in a full life. He had reached a unanimous international recognition by his peers. He had started scientific collaborations with many research groups all over the world. He was full of potential, and destined to a brilliant career. Julien authored more than 80 papers in top-notch peer-reviewed international journals, ranging from the Transactions of several IEEE Societies, to other strong-impact publications somewhat away from our community, such as the Journal of Applied Physics, Optics Express, and Nature Photonics. Recently, his research group had been selected among tough competition to participate in the European Graphene Flagship project.

Julien was a Senior Member of the IEEE. He served the IEEE in key roles, notably as a reviewer of several IEEE journals, organizer of conference sessions, Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (since 2012), and a member of the MTT-25 Technical Committee on RF Nanotechnology (2013). He was also Switzerland's National Delegate in Commission B on Fields and Waves of the Interna tional Union of Radio Science (URSI). He had twice received the Young Scientist Award at the URSI International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory, in the 2007 (Ottawa) and 2013 (Hiroshima) editions. In 2010, he was the recipient of a Raj Mittra Travel Grant.

Julien was also deeply involved in European activities, and committed to the creation of a true framework for coordinat ing European research. He contributed actively to the creation of the European Coordination Action COST IC1102 "Versatile, Integrated, and Signal-Aware Technologies for Antennas" (VISTA). In this action, he was currently leading the Working Group "Enabling Technologies,"" and he had recently fostered the introduction of technology platforms for activity sharing and knowledge transfer. All the action mem bers will sorely miss his scientific guidance, his generous avail ability, and his passionate dedication. In addition, he was also the organizer of many invited sessions at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), and the European Microwave Week (EuMW).

Despite the overbooked agenda of a young university professor, Julien pursued many different activities outside his profession, enabling him to teach his students and colleagues something more than electromagnetics. He was a passionate musician, playing the guitar in several rock bands, even recording an album and giving several concerts, the latest one in January 2014. He was also an excellent sportsman, playing tennis since his youth at a very high level, and a Swiss-born skier, mastering the steepest snowy slopes of the Swiss Alps with agility and confidence. Last but not least, as a member of the Social Democratic Party, he was actively taking part in the political life of Switzerland, and deeply involved in the participative tools of Swiss democracy.

Julien always had the right word and the correct gesture in all situations, both at personal and professional levels. He was a very passionate and enthusiastic researcher, highly appreciated in his scientific community, and full of ideas. He devoted all his efforts to his research group, his doctoral students and colleagues, with the utmost degree of honesty and generosity. His work will not disappear, and we are committed to continuing his teaching and research activities. His sudden and untimely disappearance leaves his family, friends, students, and colleagues, but also many researchers around the world, with a devastating feeling of sadness and emptiness. Let's leave to the youngest Brontë sister, Anne, whose life was also cut short too early, the sad task of saying farewell to Julien:

Farewell to Thee! But not farewell

Anne Brontë (1820-1849)

Julien's Lab at EPFL

Julien ran the Adaptive Micronano Wave Systems Laboratory at EPFL. A permanent link to his lab's website is provided here, so that all can learn about the activities of his lab during his tenure at EPFL.

Adaptive Micronano Wave Systems Laboratory

Contact

This page is maintained by Prof. Sean Victor Hum. If you have questions, please direct them to:

sean DOT hum AT utoronto DOT ca