Asad Abidi
Encyclopedia
Asad Ali Abidi is a Pakistani electrical engineer, who was the first dean of Lahore University of Management Sciences
's School of Science and Engineering. He is a Professor
of electrical and electronic engineering at both the University of California, Los Angeles
and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore
, Pakistan
, and he is an Honorary Professor at Cornell University
.
from the Imperial College, London
, U.K. in 1976. Later he went to United States
where he attended University of California, Berkeley
. He received his M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering
in 1978 and a Ph.D in 1981 under the supervision of Robert Meyer. He is an IEEE Fellow
and a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering
(NAE).
He joined LUMS School of Science and Engineering as its first Dean and helped shape the early days of this new institution
The school is modeled along the lines of world's leading technical universities, primarily MIT and Caltech, and is expected to produce a new generation of scientists and engineers, to help transform the economic and technical landscape of Pakistan.
. From 1981 to 1984, he was with Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, as a Member of Technical Staff at the Advanced LSI Development Laboratory. He was a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Hewlett Packard Laboratories in 1989. He is one of the only two Pakistani-origin members of the NAE. and recognized as ISSCC top ten author. He is well-known and has been credited for his research on RF-CMOS circuits which enabled the wireless revolution in late 1990s.
He served as the Program Secretary for the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference
(ISSCC) from 1984 to 1990, and was the General Chairman of the Symposium on VLSI Circuits in 1992. He was the Secretary of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Council from 1990 to 1991. From 1992 to 1995, he was the Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.
, to travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts
to attend Harvard University
on a scholarship, where he subsequently held a lectureship position. His father soon returned to Pakistan to help design the Mangla Dam
(an "Abidi Guesthouse" still stands in his honor). Asad grew up moving around many different regions of Pakistan until he was finally placed in Cadet College, Hasan Abdal. At the age of 16, he was sent to England to live with his uncle. There, Asad attended a small polytechnic school where he made good friends with his teacher. He took an A-level crash course and ended up doing very well in his exams, securing him a position in Imperial College, London on scholarship. Although Asad was significantly younger than all of his classmates, he managed to spring up to the top of his class and subsequently graduated with the highest possible honors.
At the age of 19, Asad traveled to America to pursue Master and Doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley
, rejecting a scholarship offer from Stanford University
. Upon receiving his Ph.D he was offered a job position at the Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. At Bell Labs, Asad became good friends with future Nobel Laureate George E. Smith
.
Lahore University of Management Sciences
The Lahore University of Management Sciences, usually referred to by its acronym LUMS, is a university located in Lahore, Pakistan. LUMS was established in 1984 by a group of industrialists and people belonging to Pakistan's leading private and public sector corporations, to provide rigorous...
's School of Science and Engineering. He is a Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of electrical and electronic engineering at both the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and he is an Honorary Professor at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
.
Life and Education
He received his B.Sc. degree (with first-class honors) in electrical engineeringElectrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
from the Imperial College, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, U.K. in 1976. Later he went to United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where he attended University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. He received his M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
in 1978 and a Ph.D in 1981 under the supervision of Robert Meyer. He is an IEEE Fellow
IEEE Fellow
An IEEE member is elevated to the grade of IEEE Fellow for "unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest"...
and a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
(NAE).
He joined LUMS School of Science and Engineering as its first Dean and helped shape the early days of this new institution
The school is modeled along the lines of world's leading technical universities, primarily MIT and Caltech, and is expected to produce a new generation of scientists and engineers, to help transform the economic and technical landscape of Pakistan.
Academic career
Since 1985, Asad has held a position at UCLA, where he is currently a full professorProfessor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. From 1981 to 1984, he was with Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, as a Member of Technical Staff at the Advanced LSI Development Laboratory. He was a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Hewlett Packard Laboratories in 1989. He is one of the only two Pakistani-origin members of the NAE. and recognized as ISSCC top ten author. He is well-known and has been credited for his research on RF-CMOS circuits which enabled the wireless revolution in late 1990s.
He served as the Program Secretary for the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference
International Solid-State Circuits Conference
International Solid-State Circuits Conference is a global forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and Systems-on-a-Chip. The Conference offers a unique opportunity for engineers working at the cutting edge of IC design to maintain technical currency, and to network with leading...
(ISSCC) from 1984 to 1990, and was the General Chairman of the Symposium on VLSI Circuits in 1992. He was the Secretary of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Council from 1990 to 1991. From 1992 to 1995, he was the Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.
Personal life
Asad Abidi was born in 1957 to a civil engineer and a homemaker. His father, Asghar Ali Abidi, was selected, with his close friend Ismail GulgeeIsmail Gulgee
Ismail Gulgee - The Gulgeez Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz , Hilal-e-Imtiaz, was an award-winning, globally famous Pakistani artist born in Peshawar. He was a qualified engineer in the U.S. and self-taught abstract painter and portrait painter. Before 1959, as portraitist, he painted the...
, to travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
to attend Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
on a scholarship, where he subsequently held a lectureship position. His father soon returned to Pakistan to help design the Mangla Dam
Mangla Dam
The Mangla Dam is located on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. It is the sixteenth largest dam in the world. It was built from 1961 to 1967 with funding from the World Bank. The project was designed and supervised by Binnie & Partners of London, and it was built...
(an "Abidi Guesthouse" still stands in his honor). Asad grew up moving around many different regions of Pakistan until he was finally placed in Cadet College, Hasan Abdal. At the age of 16, he was sent to England to live with his uncle. There, Asad attended a small polytechnic school where he made good friends with his teacher. He took an A-level crash course and ended up doing very well in his exams, securing him a position in Imperial College, London on scholarship. Although Asad was significantly younger than all of his classmates, he managed to spring up to the top of his class and subsequently graduated with the highest possible honors.
At the age of 19, Asad traveled to America to pursue Master and Doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, rejecting a scholarship offer from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Upon receiving his Ph.D he was offered a job position at the Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. At Bell Labs, Asad became good friends with future Nobel Laureate George E. Smith
George E. Smith
George Elwood Smith is an American scientist, applied physicist, and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. He was awarded a one-quarter share in the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit—the CCD sensor".Smith was born in White Plains, New York...
.
Awards and recognitions
- 2009 Third World Academy of Sciences
- 2008 UCLA HSSEAS Lockheed Martin Award for Excellence in Teaching
- 2008 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State CircuitsIEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State CircuitsThe IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits is a Technical Field Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . It was previously called the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Award. In November 2005 the award was renamed to honor Donald O. Pederson...
- "For pioneering and sustained contributions in the development of RF-CMOS"
- 2007 National Academy of Engineering
- "For contributions to the development of integrated circuits for MOS RF communications"
- Top 10 contributors to the ISSCC in its 50 year history
- 2000 IEEE Third Millennium Medal
- 1998 Design Contest Award at the Design Automation Conference
- 1997 ISSCC Jack Raper Outstanding Technology Directions Paper Award
- 1997 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award
- 1996 Best Paper Award of the 21st European Solid State Circuits Conference
- 1988 TRW Award for Innovative Teaching Postdoctoral Research Associate
Fellowships/Membership
- An IEEE Fellow
- A member of the United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
- Associate Fellow, Third World Academy of Sciences
Books
- Ahmad Mirzaei, Asad Abidi, ""Analysis and Design of IF and RF Circuits for SDR Receivers: Anti-aliasing Pre-filters, Accurate and Low-noise Quadrature LO Generation and Injection-locked Dividers"", VDM Verlag, 2008
- Emad Hegazi, Jacob Rael, and Asad Abidi, "The Designer's Guide to High-Purity Oscillators", Springer, 2005. ISBN 1402076665
- A. A. Abidi, P. R. Gray, R. G. Meyer, editors, "Integrated Circuits for Wireless Communications", IEEE Press, NY, 1998