| Allen Taflove | |
|---|---|
| Residence | Evanston, IL |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | FDTD computational electrodynamics |
| Institutions | Northwestern University |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University |
Allen Taflove is a full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering, since 1998. Since 1972, he has pioneered basic theoretical approaches and engineering applications of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) computational solutions of Maxwell's equations. He coined the descriptors "finite difference time domain" and "FDTD" in the 1980 paper, “Application of the finite-difference time-domain method to sinusoidal steady-state electromagnetic penetration problems,” IEEE Trans. Electromagnetic Compatibility, vol. 22, pp. 191–202, Aug. 1980 (doi:10.1109/TEMC.1980.303879). In 1990, he was the first person to be named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the FDTD area.
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Prof. Taflove received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northwestern University in 1971, 1972, and 1975, respectively.
Since about 2000, FDTD techniques have emerged as a primary means to computationally model many scientific and engineering problems dealing with electromagnetic wave interactions with material structures. Current FDTD modeling applications range from near-DC (ultralow-frequency geophysics involving the entire Earth-ionosphere waveguide) through microwaves (radar signature technology, antennas, wireless communications devices, digital interconnects, biomedical imaging/treatment) to visible light (photonic crystals, nanoplasmonics, solitons, and biophotonics).
In 1995, Prof. Taflove authored the textbook/research monograph, Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method. In 1998, he edited the research monograph, Advances in Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method. Subsequently, he and Prof. Susan Hagness of the University of Wisconsin-Madison expanded and updated the 1995 book in a year-2000 second edition, and then further expanded and updated the 2000 second edition in a 2005 third edition. Through June 30, 2011, his four published FDTD books had approximately 10,500 total sales. As of Dec. 16, 2011, Prof. Taflove had authored or co-authored a total of 5 books, 21 articles or chapters in books and magazines, 138 refereed journal papers (published or in-press), and 14 U.S. patents. In 2002, he was named to the original ISI highly cited researcher list of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). His books, journal papers, and U.S. patents have received a total of more than 18,000 citations according to Google Scholar® (GS), and his h-index is reported as either 44 (GS) or 37 (ISI). Of his journal papers, 24 (GS) or 20 (ISI) have 100 or more citations, as do 6 (GS) of his U.S. patents. The descriptors "finite difference time domain" and "FDTD" coined by Prof. Taflove in 1980 have since become widely used, having appeared in this exact form in more than 44,000 articles and 80,000 articles, respectively (GS). These usages of "finite difference time domain" and "FDTD" greatly exceed the count of formal citations to his papers and books. Currently, at least 13 freeware and 28 commercial FDTD software suites are available, as per Wikipedia (Finite-difference time-domain method#External links).
Beginning in 2003, Prof. Taflove has collaborated with Prof. Vadim Backman of Northwestern University's Biomedical Engineering Department in research aimed at the minimally invasive detection of early-stage cancers of the human colon, pancreas, and lung. The techniques being pursued are based upon spectral and/or angular analysis of light that is backscattered from histologically normal tissue located away from a neoplastic lesion in what has been termed the field effect. This may lead to a new paradigm in cancer screening where, for example, lung cancer could be reliably detected by analyzing a few cells brushed from the interior surface of a person's cheek. On May 5, 2008, a large collaboration headed by Prof. Backman (with Prof. Taflove as a co-investigator) was awarded a five-year, $7.5-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to pursue this biophotonics technology to develop a noninvasive test for population-wide colon cancer screening.
In 2010 and 2011, Prof. Taflove and his co-defendant, Shih-Hui (Gilbert) Chang, a former Ph.D. student, won four consecutive decisions in the U.S. Federal courts in a case initiated in July 2007 and then pursued through the appeals process by two plaintiffs who questioned the originality of some of the Taflove-Chang publications. Specifically, Taflove and Chang first won a summary judgment by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and subsequently won a denial of the plaintiffs' request for reconsideration of the summary judgment by the same U.S. District Court. Then, Taflove and Chang won a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirming the judgment of the U.S. District Court. Subsequently, Taflove and Chang won a denial of the plaintiffs' petition for rehearing, and for rehearing en banc by the same U.S. Court of Appeals.
On April 9, 2010, the District Court ordered the plaintiffs to pay $34,869.76 in costs to Taflove and Chang. On December 20, 2010, the District Court ordered the plaintiffs to also pay $745,582 in legal fees to Taflove and Chang. Regarding the latter, the District Court stated:[1]
"Having taken these factors into account, there can be no doubt that defendants are entitled to attorneys’ fees. The strength of defendants’ case is obvious. This suit was not a “toss-up” that might have been resolved in favor of either party; rather, defendants prevailed on each of plaintiffs’ claims at the summary judgment stage. Moreover, consideration of the amount of relief obtained in the litigation also strongly favors defendants."[1]
"The Seventh Circuit has gone “so far as to suggest . . . that the prevailing party in a copyright case in which the monetary stakes are small should have a presumptive entitlement to an award of attorneys’ fees,” and that when “the prevailing party is the defendant, who by definition receives not a small award but no award, the presumption in favor of awarding fees is very strong.” Id. at 437. Given that defendants received no award as a result of the litigation, they are entitled to this presumption."[1]
"Beyond these two most important factors, other considerations further support the defendants’ entitlement to fees. There is significant evidence, for example, that the suit was motivated in key part by personal animosity."[1]
The following article in Nature Milestones: Photons which illustrates the historical significance of the Finite-difference time-domain method and Prof. Taflove's research as related to Maxwell's equations: