Vasu and Vijay Varadan, Distinguished Professors in the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, have accepted faculty positions in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, beginning in January 2005. The Varadans were recognized at a farewell dinner hosted by the ESM Department on December 2nd.


Vasu will hold the George M. and Boyce W. Billingsley Chair in Engineering and will be a distinguished professor of electrical engineering. This position is a $1.5 million chair endowed by a gift from Boyce and the late George Billingsley and matched by funds from the $300 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation.

Vijay will hold the Graduate Research Faculty Endowed Chair in Microelectronics and High Density Electronics, a $3 million graduate research chair endowed by funds from the $300 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. Vijay, who is also a professor of neurosurgery at Penn State, will hold a similar title at the University of Arkansas Medical School (UAMS), in addition to his primary position as distinguished professor of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering. He will also serve as the director of the High Density Electronics Center.

During their 21 years at Penn State, Vasu and Vijay have made major contributions to the formulation of numerical techniques for sonar, radar and ultrasonic NDE, the development of the T-matrix method, development of negative refractive index materials, chiral materials, MEMS, sensors, wireless communications, tunable ceramics for electronically steerable antennas and active noise control systems, and most recently to the development of biosensors for cough monitoring and the treatment of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease.


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