Thomas Tapen receives 2021 ECE Outstanding Thesis Research Award

Congratulations to ECE Ph.D. candidate Thomas Tapen, winner of this year's ECE Outstanding Thesis Research Award. The annual award is given to a graduating Ph.D. student from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering based on the significance of their doctoral research. 

The working title of Tapen's thesis is: "Design and Analysis of Multi-Octave Tunable RF/MMW Front-Ends for High Out-of-Band Linearity Software Defined Radio." His research is focused on multi-octave passive mixer-based duplexing transceivers, and more recently similarly widely tunable LC equivalent resonators, both for the purpose of implementing high linearity software defined radios. 

"The award means a lot to me as a validation of my work," Tapen said. "It can be difficult to see what progress if any you are making along the way to a Ph.D. This award makes it easier to see how all the late nights were worth spending over the years."

Tapen extended thanks and appreciation to mentors and colleagues. "My thesis work would not have been possible without many people, but special thanks go to my advisor, Professor Alyssa Apsel, and to Professor Al Molnar for their mentorship. Two of Al's former students, Hazal Yüksel and Zachariah Boynton, were my closest partners in the duplexing transceiver work as well as good friends."

The ECE Graduate Committee reviews award nominations and the ECE Director of Graduate Studies oversees the process. In addition to a cash prize, the winner will be presented with an engraved plaque near the end of the semester.