Joshi, Laroussi Become ODU's Latest IEEE Fellows

Old Dominion University faculty members Ravindra Joshi and Mounir Laroussi, whose research has helped to advance bioelectrics and biomedical applications of cold plasmas, have been elected as Fellows of the international Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

A citation from the IEEE board of directors said Joshi's elevation to Fellow was for his contributions in "bioelectrics and simulation of cellular responses to pulsed power excitation."

Laroussi received the honor for contributions to "biomedical applications of low-temperature, atmospheric-pressure plasmas."

The men, both of whom are professors of electrical and computer engineering in the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology, join Karl Schoenbach, the Batten Endowed Chair in Bioelectric Engineering, as holders of the prestigious title. According to the IEEE, "The grade of Fellow recognizes unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred only by invitation of the board of directors upon a person of outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in IEEE-designated fields, and who has made important individual contributions to one or more of these fields."

Joshi, who was named a University Professor at ODU in 2007, received much of his education in India and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Arizona State University in 1988. He joined ODU in 1989, and since then has also served as a visiting scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and for Motorola. He twice has been on the executive committee for the IEEE Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena and received the 2005 Martin Black Prize from the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

The research of Joshi encompasses modeling and simulations in the areas of bioelectrics and biophysics; charge transport in semiconductors, liquids and gases; non-equilibrium high-field phenomena, including breakdown physics; and biocellular mechanisms such as apoptosis and signal transduction.

Laroussi earned degrees in his native Tunisia and in France before getting his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1988. He joined ODU's Applied Research Center in 1998 as a research scientist and was promoted to full professor in 2008. He has been director of ODU's Laser and Plasma Engineering Institute since January 2007. He has served as guest editor of IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science and more recently as guest editor of the journal Plasma Processes and Polymers.

The holder of four patents, Laroussi is well known in his field for his invention of an easy-to-use cold plasma pencil. The device has been publicized in numerous journals, television reports and magazines as a dependable instrument that can employ a plasma plume to kill germs without harming healthy tissue.

Research by Joshi and Laroussi in recent years has helped to build ODU's Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics into one of the premier facilities of its kind in the world.