Biography
Stavros Georgakopoulos is a distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University (FIU), where he also serves as the director and founder of the Transforming Antennas Center and the co-director and co-founder of the RF Communications, Millimeter Waves and Terahertz Lab.
He received his diploma in electrical and computer engineering (five-year degree) from the University of Patras, Greece, in 1996. Upon completion of this degree, he joined the graduate program in electrical engineering at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, Arizona. While he was pursuing his graduate degrees, he worked as a graduate research assistant at the Telecommunications Research Center (TRC) and was involved in numerous research programs such as the Advanced Helicopter Electromagnetics (AHE) Program. His research at ASU focused in the areas of antennas, RF design, microwaves, computational and applied electromagnetics, EMI/EMC analysis, and scattering. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering both from ASU in 1998 and 2001, respectively.
From 2001 to 2007, he held a principal engineer position at the Research and Development Department of SV Microwave, which is part of Amphenol Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers of interconnect and telecommunications products in the world. As a principal engineer at SV Microwave, he designed and developed high-performance and high-reliability passive microwave components, thin-film circuits, high-performance interconnects and calibration standards. Also, he led several teams of senior and junior engineers through successful completion of large-scale research projects and designs.
He is the director/founder of the Transforming Antennas Center (a $9.76 million research center funded by the Air Force, which is focused on the development of foldable and reconfigurable antenna systems), and co-director/co-founder of the RF Communications, Millimeter Waves and Terahertz Lab. Georgakopoulos has led research grants totaling over $17,672,366 as principal investigator. His current research interests include reconfigurable, ultra-wideband and miniaturized antennas and antenna arrays; phased arrays; beamformers; packable and deployable antennas and arrays; computational electromagnetics integrated with machine learning and AI algorithms; wireless powering of portable, wearable and implantable electromagnetic devices; and antenna and wireless communication systems for medical applications.
Georgakopoulos was awarded in September 2015 the FIU President’s Council Worlds Ahead Faculty Award. This award is the highest honor that FIU extends to a faculty member to highlight the contributions of individuals who excel in every aspect of their work, including teaching and mentorship, research and service.
He has published 65 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 210 papers in conferences and four book chapters. Also, he has 34 issued U.S. utility patents. One of his patents is the foundational patent on Origami Antennas (Georgakopoulos et al., Origami Folded Antennas, USPTO Utility Patent US 9,214,722 B2.)
Most of his peer-reviewed publications appear in the top journals of his research field (IEEE Transactions) and have been regularly cited by other research groups. While at FIU, he has been able to develop, sustain and grow a very active research program and has been successful in acquiring extramural funding. Specifically, while at FIU, he has received several grants from various agencies including NSF, the Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and industry totaling $17,672,366 as a principal investigator (PI), and $559,997 as a co-PI. In addition, he received an Innovation Generation Grant from the Motorola Foundation through which he engaged South Florida elementary students in STEM fields.
He is an active member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. In addition, Georgakopoulos serves as a reviewer for many scientific journals. He became a senior IEEE member in 2011, and a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors in 2022. Finally, he served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation from 2013 to 2019 and he currently serves as an associate editor of the IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation (2019–present).
Awards & Honors
- 2022 – Senior Member, National Academy of Inventors
- 2015 – FIU President’s Council Worlds Ahead Faculty Award
- 2013 – Second Best Paper Award, IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference (WPTC)
- 2012 – Honorary Chapter Member, National Academy of Inventors
- 2011 – Senior Member, IEEE
Education
- Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, 2001
- M.S., Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, 1998
- Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering (5‑year degree), University of Patras, Greece, 1996