Academy Members

Šipuš Zvonimir, F.C.A.

Academic titles:

• Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• professor Doctor of Science

Institutions:

• full professor – Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of University of Zagreb

Membership in Academy:

• full member – Department of Technical Sciences (05/16/2024 – …)

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Curriculum Vitae

Zvonimir Šipuš is a full professor and head of the Applied Optics Laboratory (AOLab) at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb (FER). He was born on March 12, 1964 in Zagreb, Croatia where he finished elementary school and high school (mathematical gymnasium, previously called MIOC). He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), in 1988 and 1991, respectively. In 1997 he received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, under the supervision of Professor Per-Simon Kildal.

After graduating in 1988, he was employed at Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, in the Laboratory for Semiconductors. He was involved in the development of detectors for explosive gases. Since 1993, he has been employed in the Department of Communication and Space Technologies of FER, first as an assistant (1993 – 1994 and 1997 – 1998), and then as an assistant professor (1998 – 2003), an associate professor (2003 – 2008), a full professor (2008 – 2013) and a full professor with tenure (from 2013). From 2008 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2018, he was the head of the Department of Communication and Space Technologies. He was the president of the Croatian Scientific Field Committee for Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from 2013 to 2024, and its member from 2009. He was also a member of several committees at the University of Zagreb and at FER, and a representative of the Republic of Croatia in the Programme Committee for FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) programme within Horizon 2020.

In September 1994, he joined the Antenna Group at the Department of Microwave Technology, Chalmers University of Technology as a Ph.D. student. At the same University, in the fall of 1999, he was appointed to the position Adjunct Researcher with the obligation to assist in research work and postgraduate teaching for six weeks per year. He performed this activity until 2005. Since 2006, he has been teaching within the European School of Antennas and Propagation – a post graduate school distributed in the accredited research centres on antennas and propagation in Europe. As a visiting scientist, he spent several short periods at following foreign universities: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA; and University Carlos III of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

In his 35-year scientific work, Zvonimir Šipuš has dealt with a wide range of problems related to analytical and numerical methods in electromagnetics, with the analysis and design of microwave antennas and antenna arrays, and with fiber-optic communication and sensor systems.

In the field of analytical methods, he worked on the modelling of periodic structures with a higher degree of symmetry and on the application of approximate boundary conditions in the analysis of various planar and conformal periodic structures. His two main contributions in the field of numerical methods are based on the use of mode-matching technique and approximate boundary conditions in the analysis of periodic structures (metasurfaces, structures with a higher degree of symmetry, soft and hard surfaces, etc.), as well as the development of a method for calculating Green’s functions of general multilayer planar and curved structures. Together with prof. Per-Simon Kildal he developed the G1DMULT algorithm (Green’s functions of one-dimensional structures) which is a scheme for the numerical calculation of Green’s functions for various planar and curved multilayer electromagnetic structures that can be generally anisotropic and that can contain periodic metallic patterns (for example, metasurfaces). The algorithm has been used intensively for 20 years and it has been given to various research groups to be used in scientific research.

In the field of design of microwave antennas and antenna arrays, he worked on the modelling of planar and conformal antennas and antenna arrays, lens antennas (both, dielectric and realized using periodic structures) and antennas for body-centric systems. He contributed to the development of hybrid analysis methods where mathematical analytical methods are implemented in numerical codes with the aim of speeding up the calculation time. Based on these computer codes, together with his colleagues he developed several practical antenna designs that were highly recognized in the community: a leaky waveguide antenna with sidewalls realized using a periodic structure, an omnidirectional cylindrical microstrip antenna, and a broadband circularly-polarized microstrip antenna with a single excitation port. In the last few years, prof. Šipuš participated in the analytical modelling of antennas for body-centric communication and sensor systems and in the derivation of fundamental limits for implanted antennas – the upper limit for the radiated power and power density reaching free space.

In the field of fiber-optic communication and sensor systems, Zvonimir Šipuš worked on the development of next-generation optical access networks (especially WDM-PON solutions with a new type of optical sources containing an extended resonator cavity and an averaging mirror), on the development of optical sensor systems for measuring vibrations, stress and temperature (especially for high-power electric motors and generators), and on the analysis of nonlinear pulse propagation in optical fibers.

The scientific activity of Zvonimir Šipuš has also been recognized internationally. This is mostly reflected in the international scientific cooperation with numerous related research groups: with the group of the late prof. Per-Simon Kildal, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg; with the group of prof. Anja Skrivervik, EPFL, Lausanne; with the group of prof. Eva Rajo-Iglesias, University Carlos III of Madrid; with the group of prof. Oscar Quevedo-Teruel, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm; and with the group of prof. Anthony Grbic, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. He was involved in 12 scientific international projects, either as a leader or as a national coordinator; he is currently the head of the FER team in the FITNESS project (2023 – 2027) – European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Open funding programme under Horizon Europe, which finances only top innovative projects. He is an active member of several international scientific societies, the most significant of which are the membership in the Board of Directors of the European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP, since 2022), as well as in the Board of Directors of the European School of Antennas and Propagation (ESoA, since 2006). He also actively participates in the organization of international scientific conferences (he was a member of the conference organizing committee and technical program committee of more than 15 international conferences, five of which were organized in Croatia) and held numerous invited lectures at conferences and prestigious institutions abroad. He is also an Associate Editor of the international journal Automatika.

During his career, Zvonimir Šipuš actively worked on the development of new research infrastructure in Croatia. In order to enable scientific and teaching work in the microwave and optical frequency range, he significantly upgraded the Laboratory for Applied Optics and the Laboratory for Antennas and Microwaves (at FER) with advanced measuring instruments and other measuring equipment using funds obtained from international and domestic scientific projects. He initiated and taught many courses at undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies of FER, in the fields of optoelectronics, optical communication systems, antennas and propagation, and analytical and numerical methods for solving electromagnetic problems. He has supervised more than 120 bachelor’s and diploma theses, 10 master of science theses and 14 doctoral dissertations. Furthermore, since 2006 he has been teaching at the European School of Antennas and Propagation (ESoA), where he participates in an average of two to three doctoral courses per year and where he was the organizer of 12 doctoral courses held in Croatia.

For outstanding results in scientific and professional work, Zvonimir Šipuš received two awards: the Annual National Science Award of the Republic of Croatia for the research of conformal antennas and periodic structures (in 2006), and the Golden Plaque Josip Lončar for contribution in the field of analysis and modelling of electromagnetic structures, raising international visibility and inclusion of FER in the European research area (in 2023). Zvonimir Šipuš is married and the father of two adult children.

Zvonimir Šipuš – personal page (https://aolab.fer.hr/aolab/people/zvonimir_sipus)

Zvonimir Šipuš – Croatian scientific bibliography (https://www.croris.hr/osobe/profil/11445?lang=en)