Arthur Aaron Oliner (March 5, 1921 – September 9, 2013) was an American physicist and electrical engineer, who was professor emeritus at department of electrical and computer engineering at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

-Polytechnic. Best known for his contributions to engineering electromagnetics and antenna theory, he is regarded as a pioneer of leaky wave theory and

leaky wave antenna Leaky-wave antenna (LWA) belong to the more general class of traveling wave antenna, that use a traveling wave on a guiding structure as the main radiating mechanism. Traveling-wave antenna fall into two general categories, slow-wave antennas and f ...

Biography

Arthur Aaron Oliner was born on March 5, 1921, in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He received an undergraduate degree from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

and Ph.D. from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1941 and 1946 respectively, with both being in physics. In 1946, he joined Microwave Research Institute at

's school of engineering, then known as the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. In 1965, he went on to a

sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work; "an extended period of time intentionally spent on something that’s not your routine job." The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Bi ...

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

in Paris, France, under a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. Becoming a full professor in 1957, Oliner acted as the head of the institute's department of electrical engineering in between 1966 and 1974. In addition, he was the director of the Microwave Research Institute from 1967 until 1982. He retired from New York University in 1990. He died on September 9, 2013, in

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by ...

. He was survived by two children, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild; his wife Frieda, died in 2013. Oliner was a Fellow of AAAS and a Life Fellow of

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

. In 1991, he was elected to the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

for his "contributions to the theory of guided electromagnetic waves and antennas." He was a recipient of the

IEEE Heinrich Hertz Medal The IEEE Heinrich Hertz Medal was a science award presented by the IEEE for outstanding achievements in the field of electromagnetic waves. The medal was named in honour of German physicist Heinrich Hertz, and was first proposed in 1986 by IEEE Regi ...

(2000) and Distinguished Educator Award of the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, of which he was a Honorary Life Member. During his career, Oliner was also employed as an engineering consultant for

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

Raytheon Technologies RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies Corporation, is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by reve ...

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes H-4 Hercules air ...

and

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

. He was the founder of Merrimac Industries, and served on its board of directors from 1962 until its acquisition by Crane Aerospace in 2010.

Research

Oliner's research work encompassed a wide array of topics in microwave field theory, including but not limited to equivalent

networks Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

and circuits, precision measurements, leaky and

surface wave In physics, a surface wave is a mechanical wave that propagates along the Interface (chemistry), interface between differing media. A common example is gravity waves along the surface of liquids, such as ocean waves. Gravity waves can also occu ...

s on waveguides,

traveling-wave antenna In radio and telecommunication, a traveling-wave antenna is a class of antenna that uses a traveling wave on a guiding structure as the main radiating mechanism. Its distinguishing feature is that the radio-frequency current that generates the ra ...

phased array In antenna (radio), antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled Antenna array, array of antennas which creates a radio beam, beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point ...

s and periodic structures. He was also involved in the research of surface acoustic waveguides and

integrated optics A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) or integrated optical circuit is a microchip containing two or more photonic components that form a functioning circuit. This technology detects, generates, transports, and processes light. Photonic integrated ci ...

. His work with L. O. Goldstone pioneered the theory behind

s. Following his retirement in 1990, he was also involved in the research of

stripline In electronics, stripline is a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) transmission line medium invented by Robert M. Barrett of the Air Force Cambridge Research Centre in the 1950s. Stripline is the earliest form of planar transmission line. De ...

s and

microstrip Microstrip is a type of electrical transmission line which can be fabricated with any technology where a conductor is separated from a ground plane by a dielectric layer known as ''substrate''. Microstrip lines are used to convey microwave-freq ...

s. In the early 2000s, Oliner also contributed to the understanding of

plasmonic In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. Just as light (an optical oscillation) consists of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of plasmons. The plasmon can be considered as a quasiparticle since it arises from the quantiz ...

phenomena within a leaky wave context.

Selected publications

;Journal articles * * * * * * ;Books * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliner, Arthur A 1921 births 2013 deaths Polytechnic Institute of New York University faculty American electronics engineers Brooklyn College alumni Cornell University alumni Fellows of the IEEE Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering American microwave engineers American telecommunications engineers American engineering writers 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists Scientists from Brooklyn Scientists from Shanghai Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers Electrical engineering academics IEEE award recipients American textbook writers