Jamesina J Simpson portrait
  • Professor, Elect & Computer Engineering

Education

  • B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University
  • Ph.D., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University

Research Summary

Prof. Simpson's research lab encompasses the application of the Maxwell's equations finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to modeling electromagnetic phenomena at frequencies over 15 orders of magnitude (~1 Hz vs. ~600 THz). In particular, her group has pioneered 3-D FDTD models of electromagnetic wave propagation in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide.

Biography

Prof. Simpson obtained the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, in 2003 and 2007, respectively.  From August 2007 to June 2012, she was a tenure-track assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the University of New Mexico (UNM). In July 2012, she joined the ECE Department at the University of Utah as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in July 2022.

Prof. Simpson's research lab encompasses the application of the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to modeling electromagnetic phenomena at frequencies over 15 orders of magnitude (~1 Hz vs. ~600 THz).  In particular, her group has pioneered three-dimensional (3-D) Maxwell's equations FDTD models of global electromagnetic wave propagation within the Earth-ionosphere waveguide. These models have been applied to a variety of applications, including remote-sensing of oil fields, scintillation, hypothesized electromagnetic earthquake precursors, remote-sensing of localized ionospheric anomalies, remote-sensing of airplanes that have crashed into the oceans, Schumann resonances, and space weather effects on the operation of electric power grids. Prof. Simpson's research activities have been funded by NASA, the Office of Naval Research, Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Labs, Intel Corporation, the Department of Energy, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Air Force, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).  Here is a movie of global propagation of an electromagnetic pulse centered at 300 Hz under these ionospheric conditions, as calculated by Prof. Simpson's 3-D FDTD model. 

Dr. Simpson has received research and teaching awards, including a 2010 NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the 2012 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Donald G. Dudley, Jr. Undergraduate Teaching Award, the 2017 Santimay Basu Medal from the Union of Radio Science International (URSI), and the 2020 IEEE AP-S Lot Shafai Mid-Career Distinguished Achievement Award. She is currently serving as Chair of Commission B: Fields and Waves of the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of URSI and as a track editor for IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

Current and former students in Prof. Simpson's research lab have earned awards such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the IEEE AP-S Pre-Doctoral and Doctoral Research Awards, and the American Association of University Women Fellowship. Graduates from her lab have accepted positions in industry and with the government, including Intel Corporation, Air Force Research Labs, the COMSOL Group, Singapore's Institute of High-Performance Computing, and the National Nuclear Security Administration's Future Leaders Program.