Sue Dean
Dr. Deanna McMillen
Dr. James C. Rautio
Dr. Arthur D. Yaghjian
Sue Dean is an engineering professional currently employed with L-3 Communications EOTech, where she is a key innovator for the manufacture of holographic weapon sights. Sue has developed a unique career path, working in areas from medical devices to special machine design and development, to military and commercial optics manufacturing. Her ever-expanding roles in these industries have included Operations Engineering, Design Engineering, Lean Systems Design, Project and Program Management, Quality Systems Development, and Business Development. She has served as a part-time faculty member at Washtenaw Community College, and is an active member of MI-Light, Michigan's photonics regional innovation cluster. Fueled by her own passion for learning and personal and professional growth, she enjoys mentoring students and new professionals in engineering and entrepreneurship.
She received her Bachelor's and Master's in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Dr. McMillen is a Senior Optical Engineer at EOTech, an L-3 Communications company. EOTech delivers cutting edge technology and products in the fields of holographic sighting systems, tactical lasers, illuminators and thermal imaging equipment. EOTech is dedicated to providing high-quality battle-tested products to law enforcement and commercial markets around the world. Previously, Dr. McMillen worked for 13 years as a Senior Optical Engineer at Zebra Imaging, where she worked on holographic imaging. She also did research on holographic data storage with the US Army Aviation and Missile Command.
She received her BFA in Photography from the University of Florida, followed by a BS in Physical Sciences from the University of Houston and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Maxwell's restored home in Scotland
Lightning rod from Maxwell's chimney
Dr. James C. Rautio is CEO, President and Founder of Sonnet Software, Inc., a private company dedicated to the development of commercial high frequency electromagnetic software. After working in the aerospace industry from 1978 to 1983, he founded Sonnet Software in 1983 to develop solutions to Maxwell’s equations for analysis of planar microwave circuits. The company was listed on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held U.S. companies in 1995, the first microwave software company ever to be so listed. Today, Sonnet Software is the leading vendor of high accuracy three-dimensional planar high-frequency electromagnetic analysis software.
Dr. Rautio received his B.S.E. degree in EE from Cornell University, his M.S. degree in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. degree in EE from Syracuse University in 1977, 1982, and 1986, respectively. He received the 2001 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S) Microwave Application Award and the 2014 IEEE MTT Distinguished Service Award.
In recognition of his extensive efforts to illuminate the career and accomplishments of James Clerk Maxwell, he was appointed MTT Distinguished Microwave Lecturer for 2005 – 2007, focusing his lectures on the life of Maxwell. He has published many papers about Maxwell and has given over 130 lectures about Maxwell worldwide. He has made available several documents on the Sonnet website, including:
Dr. Arthur Yaghjian is currently an independent consultant in electromagnetics. His research in electromagnetics has led to the determination of electromagnetic fields in materials and “metamaterials;” the development of exact, numerical, and high-frequency methods for predicting and measuring the near and far fields of antennas and scatterers; the characterization and design of electrically small antennas and supergain arrays; and the reformulation of the classical equations of motion of charged particles.
Dr. Yaghjian received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Brown University in 1964, 1966, and 1969. After teaching mathematics and physics at Hampton University, VA, in 1971 he joined the research staff of the Electromagnetics Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO. He transferred in 1983 to the Electromagnetics Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Hanscom AFB, MA, where he was employed as a Research Scientist until 1996.
He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy, and has served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE and URSI. He has received three best paper awards from the IEEE, two from NIST, and two from AFRL.
Dr. Yaghjian is author of the invited paper, "Reflections on Maxwell’s Treatise," published in Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 149, 217-249, 2014. In this paper, he attempts to explain the fundamentals of exactly what Maxwell did in his Treatise and how he did it.