Professor Ross Murch (S'84-M'90-SM'98-F'09) is a Chair Professor in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and an IAS Senior Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Electromagnetics, Antennas and Propagation (JSTEAP) which was launched in January 2025. He also served as Department Head in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at HKUST for two 3 year terms between 2009 and 2015 and is currently the Chair of the Senate Research Committee and was also the founding Director of the Center for Wireless Information Technology.
He is known for his research on multiple antenna technology including multiuser-MIMO, compact multiport antennas and multiport energy harvesting. His current research focus is creating new RF wave technology for making a better world and this includes RF imaging, multiport antenna systems, energy harvesting, 6G, electromagnetic information theory, IoT, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and ambient RF systems. His unique expertise lies in his combination of knowledge from both wireless communication systems and electromagnetics and he publishes in both areas. For example, he has 50+ journal papers in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 40+ journal papers in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications and 10+ journal papers in IEEE Transactions in Microwave Theory and Techniques with over 200 journal paper publications in total that have attracted over 20,000 citations (Google scholar). In total his research contributions include more than 200 journal publications and 20 patents while successfully supervising more than 50 research students. In 2023 he was awarded the IEEE ComSoc Wireless Technical Committee Recognition Award and is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, HKAE, NASI and HKIE. Professor Murch also has a strong interest in education, enjoys teaching and has won five teaching awards.
Professor Murch served as Area Editor, Associate Editor and Publication Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. He has also served as an Editor for special issues of the IEEE Proceedings and the IEEE Journal on Selected areas of Communications. He was also a Chair of the IEEE Communications Society technical committee on wireless communications, a member of the IEEE Communications Society Fellow Evaluation Committee and a member of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications steering committee. He has also been the Technical Program Chair for the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conferences in 2019 and 2007, Keynote Chair for IEEE International Conference on Communications in 2010, and also the Technical Program Chair for the Advanced Wireless Communications Systems Symposium in IEEE International Communications Conference in 2002.
He has held visiting positions at distinguished intuitions worldwide. He has been a David Bensted Fellow, Simon Fraser University, Canada, an HKTIIT fellow at Southampton University, UK and has spent sabbaticals at MIT, USA; AT&T, USA; Allgon Mobile Communications, Sweden; Imperial College London, UK. He was also a keynote speaker at APCAP 2023, Marina Forum 2023, Distinguished Invited Speaker at WCNC 2016, a keynote speaker at IEEE ICCT 2011, IEEE APWC 2008, IEEE GCC 2007 and IEEE WiCOM 2007 and a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society.
Professor Murch joined HKUST in 1992 as an Assistant Professor and has remained at HKUST in Hong Kong since then, where he is now a Chair Professor. From 1990-1992 he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Dundee, UK. He received his BE and PhD degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
The Systems group focuses on research that is inspired by electromagnetic techniques to enhance wireless systems such as RF imaging, internet of things, 6G, ambient RF energy harvesting, and backscatter communication.
This research group focuses on electromagnetic research that has direct application to enhancing wireless systems and includes multiport antennas, pixel antennas, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and 4D electromagnetics.
This group helps prototype and demonstrate research developed from our research and is currently focusing on RF Imaging, Fluid Antenna Systems, 4D electromagnetics and ambient RF energy harvesting.