Preface to special section on 2007 International Ottawa Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory

Abstract

[1] The 2007 URSI International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory was held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on 26–28 July 2007. It was hosted by the Canadian National Committee of URSI, together with URSI Commission B of Canada, and was organized by ANTEM Conference Inc. It is one of the most important activities of Commission B Fields and Waves of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), and is a well-established event in the Electromagnetic Community, covering a wide variety of the most recent advances in electromagnetic theory and its many diverse applications. [2] The symposium covers the entire area of Commission B Scientific topics and research activities. A total of 42 key international scientists jointly organized 21 special sessions on about 30 special and emerging topics, as well as 39 regular topics were advertised in the call for papers. From the submitted papers, 241 papers were approved by the review committee for presentation in the symposium. These papers were organized into 31 oral sessions, and 3 plenary sessions. They covered a wide area, including progress in traditional topics like electromagnetic theory, guided waves, scattering and diffraction, integral equation methods, frequency and time domain methods, waves in complex and random media, inverse scattering and imaging, as well as recent and emerging areas like electromagnetic band gap materials, metamaterials, ultra wideband signals and systems, and electromagnetic aspects of ground penetrating radars. The symposium attracted leading international experts on electromagnetic theory and practice, and offered a unique opportunity to interact and share new ideas, information, and developments. [3] This special section of Radio Science is composed of 26 full-length papers, selected from 239 papers, presented at the meeting. Papers considered for inclusion in this special section were recommended by session chairs, and technical program committee. From these recommendations, the final selection of papers was made by the special section editors. Then, authors were invited to submit manuscripts. In keeping with usual Radio Science policy, all papers were reviewed before the final decisions were made for publication. [4] We wish to express our appreciation to the local organizing committee, the technical program committee, and the session chairs for their advice and recommendations. We also thank the reviewers for their time and efforts and the authors for their timely work, which contributed greatly to the success of the symposium and of this special section of Radio Science. [5] The venues for the symposia and special sections of Radio Science, which contains selected papers, are the following: 1953, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (microwave optics); 1956, Ann Arbor, Michigan; 1959, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 1962, Copenhagen, Denmark (electromagnetic theory and antennas); 1965, Delft, Netherlands; 1968, Stresa, Italy; 1971, Tbilisi, USSR; 1974, London, England; 1977, Stanford, California; 1980, Munich, Germany (Radio Sci., 16(6), 1981); 1983, Santiago, de Compostella, Spain (Radio Sci., 19(5), 1984); 1986, Budapest, Hungary (Radio Sci., 22(6) 1987); 1989, Stockholm, Sweden (Radio Sci., 26(1-2), 1991); 1992, Sydney, Australia (Radio Sci., 28(5-6), 1993); 1995, St. Petersburg, Russia (Radio Sci., 31(6) 1996); 1998, Thessaloniki, Greece (Radio Sci., 35(2), 2000); 2001, Victoria, Canada (Radio Sci., 38(2), 2003); 2004, Pisa, Italy (Radio Sci., 40(6), 2005); 2007, Ottawa, Canada (Radio Sci., 43(4), 2008).