This special issue of the International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technology hosts an extended version of selected papers presented at the 13th edition of the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019), which was held from 31 March to 5 April 2019 in Krakow, Poland.
The conference included 973 papers, selected through a rigorous peer-review process, presented in oral, convened, and poster sessions and several workshops and short courses. Moreover, three keynote and 12 invited speakers discussed the latest trends on antennas, propagation, and measurement. The conference featured an exhibit with stands of industries and institutes active in the field, and was attended by 1364 from 58 countries.
EuCAP is organized by the European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP), created in 2006 to give a common voice to the European antenna and propagation scientific community. The Association brings together enterprises, academia, local societies, scientists, and engineers in Europe, is active in education and dissemination, through the European School of Antennas (ESoA), supports Master and Ph.D. programs, and promotes the collaboration with other international societies and institutes in the field of antennas and propagation (for more information you can visit http://www.euraap.org).
The cooperation with the European Microwave Association (EuMA) dates back to the early days of EurAAP establishment. EuMA, in particular in the person of Roberto Sorrentino, has been of great support in the creation of EurAAP and one of the driving forces in bringing together the microwave and antenna and propagation communities in Europe. We take this opportunity to thank EuMA and particularly Roberto, for this great endeavor: his legacy will live with us. Since then, the two Associations are committed to strengthen their cooperation: the Memorandum of Understanding is in place and a Joint Committee has been created in 2019 to further increase the interactions and foster collaborative actions between EuMA and EurAAP.
In the frame of this cooperation, this year for the fourth time, EurAAP has been invited to compose a guest issue of the International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technology with a selection of highly ranked contributions presented at the 2019 edition of EuCAP, covering topics that are interesting for a broader microwave community. The authors were invited to submit to the journal an extended version of the conference paper, which underwent a regular review process.
Although EuCAP mainly covers advances in antenna technologies and propagation, we share with EuMA and the IJMWT readers the same passion and fascination for microwaves. Hopefully, this special issue will inspire the reader with new ideas for common activities and scientific collaborations.
We would like to thank the authors, the reviewers, the editorial team of the journal, and particularly the Editor in Chief of IJMWT for making this possible.
Enjoy!
Manuel Sierra Castañer (IEEE SM) was born in 1970 in Zaragoza (Spain). He obtained the degree of Telecommunication Engineering in 1994 and the Ph.D. in 2000, both from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) in Spain. He worked for the cellular company Airtel from 1995 to 1997. Since 1997, he worked in the University “Alfonso X” as an assistant, and since 1998 at Technical University of Madrid as a research assistant, an assistant, an associate professor, and finally a Full Professor since 2017. He has been a visitor researcher in Tokyo Tech (September–December 1998) and EPFL (September–December 1999) during his Ph.D. and a visitor Professor in Tokyo Tech during the summers of 2012 and 2013. Currently, he is a Senior member of the IEEE and Fellow of AMTA Society. His current research interests are in planar antennas and antenna measurement systems. Dr. Sierra-Castañer obtained the IEEE APS 2007 Schelkunoff Prize Paper Award for the paper “Dual-Polarization Dual-Coverage Reflectarray for Space Applications” in 2007 and other awards for papers in conferences. He has been an AMTA Europe Liaison since 2015 until the end of 2019. Since January 2016, he is a member of the EurAAP board of directors, where he is currently the vice-chair.
Stefania Monni (IEEE SM) was born in Cagliari, Italy, in 1974. She obtained her MSc. in Electronic Engineering in 1999 from the University of Cagliari, Italy, and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2005 from the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Between 1999 and 2000 she was with the European Space Agency ESA-ESTEC, The Netherlands, as Young Graduate Trainee on interferometry and polarimetry techniques for Synthetic Aperture Radar. Currently, she is Senior Scientist at the Radar Technology department of TNO, The Netherlands, and she leads the Antenna Team, where she is responsible for the technical coordination of the research activities and the long term strategy. Next to this, since 2019 she is also with the Chip Integration Technology Centre, in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, as Senior Scientist of the Program on Antennas in Package. Her research interests include active array antennas and periodic structures, filters and advanced manufacturing technologies. Dr. S. Monni is currently member of the Board of Directors of the European Association of Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP) and representing Benelux in EurAAP Delegate assembly. She is one of the initiators of the Joint Committee between EurAAP and the European Microwave Association (EuMA). She has over 70 publications, including journals, peer reviewed conferences, book chapters and patents. She was co-recipient of the Best Innovation Award from the European Space Agency in 2018.
