Prof. Amir Mortazawi receives MTT-S Distinguished Educator Award

Prof. Amir Mortazawi has received the 2019 Distinguished Educator Award from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTTS) “For Outstanding Achievements as an Educator, Mentor, and Role Model for Microwave Engineers and Engineering Students.”

Prof. Mortazawi has contributed to the Electromagnetics and Microwaves curriculum at three universities by developing new courses and introducing real life laboratory projects and state-of-the-art CAD tools in his courses.

His teaching is informed by his research in RF, microwave and millimeter-wave circuits including efficient microwave and millimeter-wave power amplifiers, low phase noise oscillators, wireless power transmission and harvesting, and thin film ferroelectric based circuits for frequency agile communication systems.

Before coming to the unversity of Michigan in 2001, he was on the faculty of the University of Central Florida from 1990-1998 and North Carolina State University from 1998-2001. He was named Teacher of the Year at the University of Central Florida, where he also received a University Teaching Incentive Award.

Since coming to Michigan, his teaching has focused on the regularly offered courses, Microwave Circuits I and Advanced Solid State Microwave Circuits, and the specialty courses, Radio Frequency Engineering and RF Power Amplifier Design. His main objective in the classroom has been to combine theory with real world applications and design examples.

He has supervised 18 doctoral students, more than 20 master’s students, numerous undergraduate research projects. Four of his former students are currently professors in Taiwan, China and Turkey. Two of his doctoral students have received best paper awards.

Mortazawi has served as Grad Chair for nearly five years, and Chair of the Education Committee for IEEE MTT society for three years. He has been Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (2004-2008) and an IEEE MTT-S Distinguished Microwave Lecturer (2014-2017). He initiated and chaired the first Graduate Student Challenge at IMS 2011, which is still held today. He has served as faculty advisor to the U-M Amateur Radio Club for the past ten years.

Mortazaei has served in a wide variety of positions within MTT throughout his career, and is a Fellow of IEEE. He authored more than 200 papers and four U.S patents.