2025 URSI Commission B School for Young Scientists
The sixth edition of the URSI Commission B School for Young Scientists is organized on the occasion of the EMTS 2025. This one-day School is sponsored jointly by URSI Commission B and the EMTS 2025 Local Scientific Committee. The School offers a short, intensive course, where a series of lectures will be delivered by leading scientists in the Commission B community. Young scientists are encouraged to attend the School to learn the fundamentals and future directions in the area of electromagnetic theory.
The title of the URSI EMTS 2025 School for Young Scientist is
June 23, 2025 – Belmeloro Complex, Room H
Propagation for Next Generation Systems
from EM basic to THz communications
09:00-11:00 – Fundamentals of electromagnetic propagation (Prof. Conor Brennan, Dublin City University, Ireland)
11:30-13:00 – Geometrical theory of radio propagation (Prof. Franco Fuschini, Alma Mater Studiorium University of Bologna, Italy)
14:30-16:30 – Experimental investigation of radio propagation (Prof. Thomas Kürner, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany)
Lecturers:
Conor Brennan received a B.A. Mod (Hons) and gold medal in mathematics from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 1994 and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1998. He spent several years as a post-doctoral researcher with the TCD wave scattering group before joining Dublin City University (DCU) as an Assistant Professor in 2003. He was made an Associate Professor in 2013 and Professor in 2024. He acted as Joint Head of DCU’s School of Electronic Engineering from 2015-2018. His primary research area is in computational methods for electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering, and applying such research to associated problems, such as indoor user location and tracking, energy efficient wireless communications and inverse scattering. He has authored or co- authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications in international conference proceedings and international journals. He is an Irish representative on COST Action CA20120 “Intelligence-Enabling Radio Communications for Seamless Inclusive Interactions” (INTERACT), is a member of the European Association of Antennas and Propagation, EurAAP’s Working Group on propagation, and Ambassador Programme committee and is lecturer for the European School of Antennas (ESoA). He was co-awarded ESoA’s Best Teacher award in 2020/2021. He is the General Chair of the 20th edition of the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation to be held in Ireland in 2026 having previously served as Technical Programme Committee chair on several occasions. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, and has served as External Examiner for research/teaching degrees for institutions in the UK, Belgium, Italy, Finland, South Africa and Germany. Prof. Conor Brennan was elected ESoA Best Teachers.
Thomas Kürner (Fellow IEEE) received his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1990, and his Dr.-Ing. degree in 1993, both from University of Karlsruhe (Germany). From 1990 to 1994 he was with the Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE) at the University of Karlsruhe working on wave propagation modelling, radio channel characterization and radio network planning. From 1994 to 2003, he was with the radio network planning department at the headquarters of the GSM 1800 and UMTS operator E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co KG, Düsseldorf, where he was team manager radio network planning support responsible for radio network planning tools, algorithms, processes and parameters from 1999 to 2003. Since 2003 he is Full University Professor for Mobile Radio Systems at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. In 2012 he was a guest lecturer at Dublin City University within the Telecommunications Graduate Initiative in Ireland. Currently he is chairing the IEEE 802.15 Standing Committee THz and the ETSI Industrial Specification Group THz. He was also the chair of IEEE 802.15.3d TG 100G, which developed the worldwide first wireless communications standard operating at 300 GHz. He was the project coordinator of the H2020-EU-Japan project ThoR (“TeraHertz end-to-end wireless systems supporting ultra-high data Rate applications”) and is Coordinator of the German DFG-Research Unit FOR 2863 Meteracom (“Metrology for THz Communications”). In 2019 and 2022 he received the Neal-Shephard Award of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) and also in 2022 the Best Teacher Award of the European School on Antennas and Propagation (ESoA). Prof. Thomas Kuerner was elected ESoA Best Teachers.
Franco Fuschini received the M.Sc. degree in telecommunication engineering and the Ph.D. degree in electronics and computer science from the University of Bologna, Italy, in March 1999 and July 2003, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,” University of Bologna. He is the author or a coauthor of more than 50 journal articles on electromagnetic wave propagation and wireless systems design. His main research interests are in the area of radio systems technologies and radio propagation theoretical modeling and experimental investigation.In April 1999 Prof. Fuschini received the “Marconi Foundation Young Scientist Prize” in the context of the XXV Marconi International Fellowship Award.
Prof. Conor Brennan and Prof. Thomas Kuerner were elected ESoA Best Teachers.