Professor W.C. Chew, Purdue University
March 17, 2022
4:00 p.m.
RSVP for Prof. Chew’s lecture.
Title: Classical and Quantum Electromagnetics: What is the Difference?
Abstract: Electromagnetics has influenced electrical engineering pervasively since the advent of Maxwell’s equations in 1865 [1]. Classical electromagnetics has impacted electrical engineering technologies all the way from statics to optics. It has influenced technologies from nanometer length scales to planetary length scales. What was unbeknownst to Maxwell was that the equations he put together are also valid in the quantum world. This is because photons are electromagnetic in origin: the field associated with photons is electromagnetic field, which can be quantized to accommodate or carry photons.
In this talk, we will discuss the impact of classical electromagnetics in a wide swath of technologies especially related to electrical engineering. The recent advent of quantum technologies calls for new ways to solve the quantum Maxwell’s equations. In addition, a way to track the state of the quantum system is necessary, and this is obtained by solving the quantum state equation. This field of quantum electromagnetics is still in its infancy, but it is hoped that the knowledge base generated for classical electromagnetics can be reused for quantum electromagnetics. Since photons are used in quantum communications, quantum computers, quantum sensing, many new future technologies can be impacted by quantum electromagnetics.
Bio: W.C. Chew received all his degrees from MIT. His research interests are in wave physics, specializing in fast algorithms for multiple scattering imaging and computational electromagnetics in the last 30 years. His recent research interest is in combining quantum theory with electromagnetics, and differential geometry with computational electromagnetics. After MIT, he joined Schlumberger-Doll Research in 1981. In 1985, he joined U Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was then the director of the Electromagnetics Lab from 1995-2007. During 2000-2005, he was the Founder Professor, 2005-2009 the YT Lo Chair Professor, and 2013-2017 the Fisher Distinguished Professor. During 2007-2011, he was the Dean of Engineering at The University of Hong Kong. He joined Purdue U in August 2017 as a Distinguished Professor. He has co-authored three books, many lecture notes, over 450 journal papers, and over 600 conference papers. He is a fellow of various societies, and an ISI highly cited author. In 2000, he received the IEEE Graduate Teaching Award, in 2008, he received the IEEE AP-S CT Tai Distinguished Educator Award, in 2013, elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and in 2015 received the ACES Computational Electromagnetics Award. He received the 2017 IEEE Electromagnetics Award. In 2018, he served as the IEEE AP-S President. He is a distinguished visiting professor at Tsinghua U, China, Hong Kong U, and National Taiwan U.