John Volakis 
Professor & Chope Chair, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering | College of Engineering | The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, UNITED STATES
Electrical engineering expert, focusing on computational electromagnetics
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Biography
Professor John L. Volakis is the Roy and Lois Chope Chair Professor of Engineering at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (2003-Present) and the former Director of the ElectroScience Laboratory (2003-2016) at the Ohio State University. He received his B.E. from Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH in 1978 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ohio State University in 1979 and 1982 respectively. Prof. Volakis has more than 30 years of experience in sensors and sensing, novel metamaterial antennas, RF materials for high performance hardware, UWB beamforming arrays and RF systems integration.
Industry Expertise (5)
Research
Electrical Engineering
Mechanical/Industrial Engineering
Writing and Editing
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (10)
Wireless Communication and Propagation
Antennas and Arrays
RF Materials and Packaging
RF Matching and Tunable Circuits
RFIDs
Medical Sensing
Millimeter Waves & TeraHertz
Computational Electromagnetics
Electromagnetic Compatability and Interference
Scattering and Diffraction
Accomplishments (2)
Chair USNC/URSI Comission B (professional)
2015-01-01
Awarded by the United States National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science Membership
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Award (professional)
2014-01-01
Awarded by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Education (3)
Ohio State University: Ph.D., Electrical Engineering 1982
Ohio State University: M. Sci 1979
Youngstown State: B.E., Engineering 1978
Affiliations (1)
- ElectroScience Laboratory
Links (3)
Media Appearances (4)
Goodbye, Gimmicks, Hello, Smart Solutions: Wearable Tech Shows Signs of Growing Up
Apparel
2016-11-01
At Ohio State University — a consortium member school — Dr. John Volakis, director of the ElectroScience Laboratory, and his team achieved a significant first. Using a standard sewing machine, they’ve embroidered polymerized silver threads into fabric that creates a circuit “as good as a standard circuit board,” says Dr. Volakis. At 0.1 mm in precision, the embroidered circuits have different frequencies depending on their geometric shape, and linked together can create a broadband network in a shirt or jacket to ensure that the smartphone you’re carrying, for example, always has good reception...
Precise Embroidered Circuits Bring Next-Gen Wearables Closer To Reality
PSFK
2016-05-02
“A revolution is happening in the textile industry” says director of the Ohio State University laboratory John Volakis. “We believe that functional textiles are an enabling technology for communications and sensing—and one day even medical applications like imaging and monitoring.”...
Get Your Technology Out of My Pants, or Why Smart Tech Can Get So, So Dumb
Mic
2016-04-15
Here's one example: Researchers at Ohio State University have successfully woven circuits into clothes with the exactness needed to integrate them into printed metal circuit boards, TechCrunch reported. The next step is to "incorporate receivers and electronic components" into them, said Ohio State ElectroScience Laboratory director John Volakis. For "medical applications like imaging and health monitoring," this success is a stride in the right direction...
Wired Textiles for a Phone as Useful as the Shirt on Your Back
The New York Times
2011-10-24
John Volakis wants to make the world hands-free.
The director of the ElectroScience Laboratory at Ohio State University, he is trying to end the need for cellphone hardware like the Bluetooth earpiece by fabricating communication devices out of something that most states require we carry with us all the time anyway: clothing.
“You won’t have to hold your cellphone to your ear,” said Dr. Volakis, an electrical engineer. “We’ll eliminate all that. It will be part of your attire.”...
Recent Research (2)
2016-04-13
That last item is one that John Volakis, director of the ElectroScience Laboratory at Ohio State, and research scientist Asimina Kiourti are investigating. The idea is to make brain implants, which are under development to treat conditions from epilepsy to addiction, more comfortable by eliminating the need for external wiring on the patient’s body.
“A revolution is happening in the textile industry,” said Volakis, who is also the Roy & Lois Chope Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at Ohio State. “We believe that functional textiles are an enabling technology for communications and sensing—and one day even medical applications like imaging and health monitoring.”...
2011-08-22
John Volakis, the Roy & Lois Chope Chair Professor and Director of the ElectroScience Laboratory at Ohio State, found a common analogy for the new design.
“In a way, we’re doing what’s already been done on a cell phone. You don’t see cell phones with external antennas anymore, because the antenna is part of the body of the phone,” Volakis said.
When antennas make contact with the human skin, however, the body tends to absorb radio signals and form a short circuit – a fact driven home by the recent difficulties with the antenna placement on the iPhone 4. Also, if an antenna is improperly placed, a person’s body can block it when he or she moves against a wall or other obstacles...
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