Room: MR 407
Presenters:
Bruno Clerckx, Imperial College London, UK
Matteo Nerini, Imperial College London, UK
Marco Di Renzo, CNRS & CentraleSupélec, Paris-Saclay University, France and King's College London, UK
Christoph Studer, at ETH Zurich, Sweden
Abstract:
The design and analysis of wireless communication systems have traditionally relied on simplified models of wireless channels and antenna systems that often fail to capture the underlying physics governed by Maxwell’s equations. Although these models provide analytical tractability and computational efficiency, they can produce misleading performance predictions and lead to suboptimal system designs. These limitations become especially critical in next-generation wireless networks, where real-time control of the propagation environment—enabled by technologies such as smart radio environments and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs)—plays a central role. This tutorial reviews recent physics-consistent modeling approaches that remain faithful to Maxwell’s equations and fundamental physical principles while still being practical for system- and algorithm-level research, and it outlines future directions and open research opportunities in this emerging area.
Biographies:
Bruno Clerckx is a Full Professor at Imperial College London, where he leads both the Wireless Communications and Signal Processing Lab and the Communications and Signal Processing Group within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He earned his MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from Imperial College London. Prior to academia, he spent many years in industry with Samsung Electronics in South Korea, contributing to 4G standards (3GPP LTE/LTE-A and IEEE 802.16m), and later served as Chief Technology Officer at Silicon Austria Labs, overseeing research across Austria’s leading electronic systems research center. He has authored two books on MIMO wireless systems, over 300 peer-reviewed papers, and 150 standards contributions, and holds around 80 issued or pending patents, several of which are embedded in global 4G standards. His work has been recognized with major honors including the Blondel Medal 2021, the Adolphe Wetrems Prize 2021, multiple Samsung awards, and best paper awards from IEEE and EURASIP. He is a Fellow of both the IEEE and the IET. Matteo Nerini (m.nerini20@imperial.ac.uk, Imperial College London, UK) received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Bologna in 2018 and 2020, an additional M.Sc. from NTNU, Norway, in 2020, and a Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 2024. He was awarded the 2025 Eryl Cadwallader Davies Prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial and is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Wireless Communications and Signal Processing Lab at Imperial College London.
Marco Di Renzo earned his Laurea (cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of L’Aquila, Italy, and a Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches from Paris-Sud (now Paris-Saclay University), France. He currently serves as a CNRS Research Director and Head of the Intelligent Physical Communications group at the Laboratory of Signals and Systems (L2S), CNRS & CentraleSupélec, Paris-Saclay University, and is also a Chair Professor in Telecommunications Engineering at King’s College London. His international appointments include distinguished fellowships and visiting professorships in Finland, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, IET, EURASIP, and AAIA, a member of several European academies, an Ambassador of the European Association on Antennas and Propagation, and a Highly Cited Researcher. His honors include the Michel Monpetit Prize from the French Academy of Sciences, the IEEE Communications Society Heinrich Hertz Award, and the IEEE Communications Society Marconi Prize Paper Award. He served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Communications Letters from 2019 to 2023 and currently holds several leadership roles within the IEEE Communications Society, in addition to serving on the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the IEEE.
Christoph Studer is a Professor of Integrated Information Processing in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at ETH Zurich. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from ETH Zurich in 2006 and 2009 and has held research and faculty appointments at Stanford University, Rice University, and Cornell University before returning to ETH Zurich, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2025. He has led the Integrated Systems Laboratory since 2022 and directs the SwissChips Initiative since 2024. His work has earned several distinctions, including an NSF CAREER Award and multiple Swisscom/ICTnet Innovations Awards, as well as best paper and demo awards. His research and teaching focus on digital integrated circuit design, wireless communications, digital signal processing, optimization, and machine learning.