In October 2002, Dr. Rojas was promoted to
the
rank of Full Professor in the College of Engineering.
Congratulations Professor Rojas!
Dr. Rojas came to the U.S. from Bolivia at age sixteen
with his family while his father pursued a graduate degree
at New Mexico State University (NMSU). When his family returned
to Bolivia, Prof. Rojas decided to study electrical engineering
at NMSU. He obtained his Masters and Ph.D. degrees at Ohio
State. He was drawn to Ohio State by the high quality of
research in electromagnetics and the world-wide recognition
of the Department of Electrical Engineering. He started
a Buckeye tradition in his family: a sister has a degree
in Education; a brother has a degree in Electrical Engineering;
another brother studies Material Science Engineering. His
passion for mathematics and science was nurtured by his
family’s emphasis on education and by his parents’
example. He recognizes that -- to be successful in life
-- discipline and perseverance are required.
His research area is electromagnetism and its applications.
A member of the ElectroScience Laboratory, a world renowned
research center, one of his areas of interest is active
integrated antennas for various applications such as wireless
communications. Active integrated antennas refer to a special
class of technology where antennas and other devices such
as oscillators or amplifiers are combined to make them more
compact and lightweight. This requires collaboration with
faculty in other fields of electrical engineering. Prof.
Rojas is also interested in optical communications. This
academic year, he will spend nine months at the NASA Glenn
Research Center in Cleveland investigating the potential
of optical communications between satellites. He was a visiting
researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
in Pasadena where he worked on the analysis/design of a
Luneburg Lens antenna for satellite communications. Professor
Rojas has also worked with Rockwell International in Albuquerque
and the Physical Science Laboratory at NMSU, Las Cruces.
His publications have received awards such as the R.W.P.
King Prize Award for best paper of the year on the journal
IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation by an author under
the age of thirty-five; and the Browder J. Thompson Memorial
Prize for the best paper in any of the IEEE publications
by an author under the age of thirty. Doing research, teaching
and participating in conferences are his most rewarding
professional activities.
Prof. Rojas is concerned about Latino enrollment at Ohio
State, and collaborates with other faculty to attract and
involve Latin@s in electrical engineering. In the future,
they will meet with others to discuss Latino recruitment
in other fields. In Dr. Rojas’ opinion, American universities
do not attract many Hispanic students perhaps due to misinformation
at Latin American universities about the application process
for graduate school and the financial aid available. The
Faculty group is identifying Latin American universities
where graduate students can be recruited. They would like
to travel to these universities in the future to encourage
Latino enrollment at Ohio State. Professor Rojas believes
that language and cultural barriers are not a problem in
recruiting high quality Latin@ students, but rather the
lack of information made available to these students about
the application process. He is working to change this situation.
Professor Rojas lives with his wife and children. His is
an avid soccer fan and coaches his oldest daughter’s
soccer team.
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