Introduction

A few words about the Microwaves Group

The Microwaves Group (Grupo de Microondas, in Spanish) of the University of Seville (GMUS) is one of the research groups indexed under the chapter "Information and Communication Technologies" (Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones - TIC -) within the Spanish "Andalusian Research, Development and Innovation Plan" (Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovació PAIDI ) (group code TIC-112).

The GMUS was founded at the beginning of the eighties of the XXth Century by Prof. Manuel Horno . He was the Head of the group until his premature decease in September, 1998. Since then, the leader of the group is Francisco Medina, "Catedrático" (Full Professor) at the Department of Electronics and Electromagnetism (Physics Faculty), University of Seville (Seville, Spain). Independent research lines are also conducted by Profs. Ricardo Marqués, Rafael R. Boix, Francisco Mesa, Jesús Martel, Manuel J. Freire and Joaquín Bernal.

Although the main facilities of the research group are in the Department of Electronics and Electromagnetism, several of their members are with the Departments of Applied Physics I, II and III (University of Seville). At the present moment, the group is composed by 4 Full Professors, 5 Associate Professors and two postdoc researchers.

Since its foundation, the group has been working on topics related with applications of Electromagnetic theory to problems arising in the context of printed microwave circuits and antennas (analysis and design). In particular, planar transmission lines, circuits and antennas have been the main subjects of study for many years. The group has made a good number of contributions to the analysis and applications of such kind of structures. In more recent years several members of the group have developed a new research line in the field of electromagnetic "metamaterials" (with the leadership of Prof. Ricardo Marqués). Other members have started a research line on electromagnetic compatibility (Profs. Joaquín Bernal and Manuel Freire). Prof. Rafael R. Boix is presently working on reflectarrays and modeling of periodic structures. Analytical modeling of extraordinary transmission phenomena and frequency selective surfaces are also object of attention (F. Medina, R.R. Berral, F. Mesa).

The members of the group have authored one book on metamaterials (Metamaterials with Negative Parameters: Theory, Design and Microwave Applications by R. Marqués, F. Martín and M. Sorolla, Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-471-74582-2), co-edited one book on balanced microwave filters (Balanced Microwave Filters by F. Martín, J.S. Hong, L. Zhu and F. Medina (eds.), Wiley and IEEE Press, ISBN: 978-1-119-23761-7), 10 patents of invention, 20 book chapters and more than 370 journal papers (most of them in highly-ranked journals within their respective SCI category). In particular, the group has been very active in the field of microwave theory and techniques (the members of this group have co-authored 103 papers in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 24 in IEEE Microwave and Wireless Compon. Lett., and 2 in IEEE Microw. Magazine). They have also extensively contributed to the field of antennas (36 papers in IEEE Trans. on Antennas and Propagation, 8 letters in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propag. Lett., and 2 papers in IEEE Antennas and Propag. Mag.). They have also contributed to more than 650 conference papers / abstracts (more than 460 in international conferences, several tens of which were invited contributions and a few plenary talks). Most of the members of the group act as reviewers for international journals (Science, Advanced Materials, IEEE, IET, APS and IoP periodicals, among others, up to a whole of more than 70 different titles), and some of them are or have been associate editors of journals and participated in the organising committees or TPCs of relevant international conferences. Two of the members of the group are IEEE Fellows. In brief, the group is nowadays well established at the international level.