Yuen Tze Lo ( zh, 罗远祉; January 31, 1920 – May 10, 2002) was a

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and academician. He was a professor emeritus at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. He is best known for his contributions to the theory and design of

antennas In radio-frequency engineering, an antenna (American English) or aerial (British English) is an electronic device that converts an alternating electric current into radio waves (transmitting), or radio waves into an electric current (receivi ...

. He is the editor of the textbook series, ''Antenna Handbook''. The Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Research Award at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is named after him.

Biography

Lo was born on January 31, 1920, in

Hankou Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers w ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from

National Southwestern Associated University The National Southwestern Associated University was a national public university from 1938 to 1946 based in Kunming, Yunnan, China. It was formed by the wartime incorporation of National Peking University, National Tsinghua University, and Nat ...

in 1942. Between 1946 and 1948, he worked at the

National Tsing Hua University National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) is a public research university in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was first founded in Beijing. After the Chinese Civil War, president Mei Yiqi and other academics relocated with the retreating Nationalist government to ...

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

as an instructor; he worked briefly at the

Yenching University Yenching University () was a Private university, private research university in Beijing, China, from 1919 to 1952. The university was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" come ...

as well. He obtained his

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees in electrical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana in 1949 and 1952, respectively. Between 1952 and 1956, Lo worked at Channel Master Corporation at

Ellenville, New York Ellenville is a village within the town of Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York, United States. Its population was 4,167 at the 2020 census. History The area was originally called "Socconessing" by the first inhabitants, the Esopus Munsee of ...

, as an engineer. In 1956, Lo joined

as faculty member, conducting research at the Antenna Laboratory. Lo stayed as faculty member at University of Illinois until his retirement in 1990. He was also the director of the Electromagnetics Lab from 1982 to 1990. Lo had served as a distinguished lecturer in microstrip antenna theory. In 1986, Lo 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 inventions and innovative ideas which have advanced significantly the theory and design of antennas and

arrays An array is a systematic arrangement of similar objects, usually in rows and columns. Things called an array include: {{TOC right Music * In twelve-tone and serial composition, the presentation of simultaneous twelve-tone sets such that the ...

." In 1996, he received

IEEE Antennas & Propagation Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office i ...

's Distinguished Achievement Award for "fundamental contributions to the theory of antenna arrays." Lo was married to Sara de Mundo and had two children. He died on May 10, 2002.

Research

Lo's research interests included antenna theory, design and applications. He is regarded as the inventor of the broadband television-receiving antenna. In 1959, he designed the University of Illinois's

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...

, Vermilion Observatory Radio Telescope; the structure was considered to be the largest antenna of the world at that time, prior to the completion of

Arecibo Telescope The Arecibo Telescope was a spherical reflector radio telescope built into a natural sinkhole at the Arecibo Observatory located near Arecibo, Puerto Rico. A cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals wer ...

. In the late 1970s, he introduced the cavity-model theory for

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 ...

patch antenna A patch antenna is a type of antenna with a low profile, usually consisting of a printed circuit board. It consists of a planar rectangular or circular sheet or "patch" of metal, mounted over a larger sheet of metal called a ground plane. It ...

s. His research work and expertise also involved other microwave structures such as microwave resonators and

artificial materials Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotati ...

. In 1958, Lo introduced an early version of method of moments in a course on

electromagnetics In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...

at University of Illinois.

Selected publications

;Articles * * * * * * * * ;Books * ;Book chapters *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lo, Yuen Tze 1920 births 2002 deaths People from Wuhan Chinese emigrants to the United States American electrical engineers American telecommunications engineers American microwave engineers National Southwestern Associated University alumni Academic staff of the National Tsing Hua University Grainger College of Engineering alumni Grainger College of Engineering faculty Electrical engineering academics American academics of Chinese descent American engineering writers 20th-century American engineers 20th-century Chinese engineers Chinese electrical engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Fellows of the IEEE Scientists from Hubei 20th-century American inventors 20th-century Chinese inventors American textbook writers