Harpreet S. Dhillon named interim head of Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Harpreet Dhillon. Photo by Ben Murphy for Virginia Tech.
Harpreet S. Dhillon, the W. Martin Johnson Professor and associate director of Wireless@VirginiaTech, has been named interim department head of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), effective Aug. 1.
“I am pleased to announce that Harpreet Dhillon will serve in this important leadership role for the college," said Julie Ross, the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean of Engineering. "During fall semester, he will serve as a bridge between former department head Luke Lester and incoming department head Rose Hu. I look forward to working with Harpreet to build on ECE’s substantial momentum while we prepare for Rose’s arrival.”
Dhillon is an expert in wireless communications who was drawn to Virginia Tech more than 10 years ago for its pioneering research and long history of excellence in the field. Since joining the College of Engineering in 2014, he has been named or awarded the following:
- Outstanding New Assistant Professor, 2017
- Steven O. Lane Junior Faculty Fellowship, 2018
- College of Engineering Faculty Fellowship, 2018
- Turner Faculty Fellowship, 2019
- Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, 2020
He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) with expertise in communication theory, wireless communications, stochastic geometry, signal processing, and machine learning for communications systems. He has received several technical awards in his discipline, including the IEEE Leonard G. Abraham Prize, the IEEE Heinrich Hertz Award, and the IEEE Communications Society Katherine Johnson Young Author Best Paper Award. He also has received early career technical achievement awards from three technical committees of the IEEE Communications Society: the Wireless Communications Technical Committee, the Communication Theory Technical Committee, and the Radio Communications Committee.
Dhillon serves on the Executive Editorial Committee for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, has written three books, has edited two volumes, and has published nearly 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He has appeared on multiple lists of highly cited authors, including Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researcher’s List. Additionally, he has received 12 awards from the National Science Foundation and secured or helped to secure research funding totaling more than $12 million, with Virginia Tech’s share reaching $9 million.
In recent research endeavors, Dhillon has focused on wireless communications and localization problems with students and colleagues at Wireless@VirginiaTech. In one of his ongoing projects, he and collaborators are working to develop a 6G vision guided communications system that “views” and maps the surrounding environment with funding from a $1 million National Science Foundation grant.
Dhillon noted Lester’s contributions to the department and its reputation over the past decade, and he said he looks forward to serving the department during this transitory period. Hu’s appointment begins Jan. 1, 2025.
Dhillon received a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in 2008, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2010, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013.
