Melissa G. Meyer joins the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an assistant professor. She comes to Michigan Tech from the University of Washington.

Meyer holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee.

Her research interests include radar signal processing, electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering, remote sensing with passive and distributed/networked instruments and space and ionospheric plasma physics.

Meyer has assisted in the teaching of Applied Electromagnetics, Continuous Time Linear Systems and Transform Analysis of Signals and Systems. She has also taught Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering. She has published papers in numerous journals, such as the Journal of Geophysical Research, Radio Science and the Journal of Atmospheric Solar-Terrestrial Physics. She also has a book chapter in preparation for Modern Bistatic and Passive Radars.

Meyer has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Spirit of Community Award from the University of Washington and the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Fellowship. She was also named the Society of Women Engineers Outstanding Female EE Graduate Student and a National Merit Scholar. She has won first place in the Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions Workshop student poster competition and first place in the International Union of Radio Science North American Meeting Student Paper Contest.

She worked as a science mentor for Bryant Elementary School Science Fair, a guest lecturer for an Earth and Space Science class and a reviewer of applications for the Women in Science and Engineering scholarship. Meyer has also served on a panel for undergraduate seminars on "How to Get into Graduate School" and "How to Get Involved in Research," a graduate student interviewer of electrical engineering faculty candidates and a volunteer at the annual Engineering Open House.

She has worked as an engineering associate for Sverdrup Technology, Inc., a lab assistant for the University of Tennessee, an engineering intern for National Instruments Corporation and an electrical engineering research and teaching assistant for the University of Washington.

ZHIJUN ZHAO

Zhijun Zhao joins the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an assistant professor. He comes to Michigan Tech from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Zhao holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also holds a PhD in Solid Mechanics, a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BS in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University.

His research interests include communication theory, statistical signal processing for communications, detection and estimation algorithms, information theory and coding, image formation and processing and information security.

He has assisted in teaching Introduction to Image and Video Processing, Communications and Information Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Zhao has published papers in journals such as Codes, Graphs and Systems, the fifth IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology and Integration of Sensing and Processing.

Zhao is a member of the IEEE student chapter, the IEEE Communication Society and the IEEE Information Theory Society. Zhao received Tsinghua scholarships from 1988 to 1996, the Excellent Thesis Award and Guanghua scholarships from Tsinghua University and third prize in the National High School Physics Competition.

He was previously a research assistant for the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Illinois, an intern at Intersymbol Communications, Inc., a postdoctoral research associate for the department of theoretical and applied mechanics at the National Center for Supercomputing and Applications, a research assistant for the department of engineering mechanics at Tsinghua University and an intern at Beijing Science and Technology University.