Emily Backer has been named the 2019 winner of the William Brown Fellowship for her work on wireless power transfer. Emily is currently working on a holographic reflect array that focuses energy from a high-powered source, like a magnetron, and concentrates a beam to a target at distance. Emily’s current work is contributing to a large microwave power transfer demonstration using ultra-lightweight and thin antenna structures that can be deployed in space economically. Emily received her BSEE in Spring 2018, having also participated in the opportunity research scholars program as an undergraduate. She is expecting to complete her MS thesis in wireless power reflect arrays in Spring 2019 and then join ViaSat’s antenna team in Duluth, GA. Congratulations, Emily!
The William Brown Fellowship was established in 2013 at Georgia Tech by friends and family of William Brown, the father of wireless power transfer. This year, a generous grant from the Space Solar Power Institute is being used with the fellowship to fund a full graduate research assistantship dedicated to wireless power transfer work.