Kane Shee-Gong Yee (born March 26, 1934) is a Chinese-American electrical engineer and mathematician. He is best known for introducing the

finite-difference time-domain method Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) or Yee's method (named after the Chinese American applied mathematician Kane S. Yee, born 1934) is a numerical analysis technique used for modeling computational electrodynamics (finding approximate solutions to ...

(FDTD) in 1966. His research interests include numerical electromagnetics,

fluid dynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) an ...

continuum mechanics Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such m ...

and

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

Biography

Yee was born on March 26, 1934, in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. He received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

and

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in electrical engineering from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1957 and 1958, respectively. He has completed his PhD in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical s ...

department at the same university under the supervision of Bernard Friedman in 1963; his dissertation involved the study of

boundary value problem In mathematics, in the field of differential equations, a boundary value problem is a differential equation together with a set of additional constraints, called the boundary conditions. A solution to a boundary value problem is a solution to t ...

s for

Maxwell's equations Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. ...

. From 1959 to 1961, he was employed at

Lockheed Missiles and Space Company Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) was a unit of the Lockheed Corporation "Missiles, Space, and Electronics Systems Group." LMSC was started by Willis Hawkins who served as its president. After Lockheed merged with Martin-Marietta the u ...

, researching

diffraction Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...

in electromagnetic waves. In 1966, Yee published a paper on the use of a

finite difference A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form . If a finite difference is divided by , one gets a difference quotient. The approximation of derivatives by finite differences plays a central role in finite difference methods for t ...

staggered grids algorithm in the solution of Maxwell's equations. Yee was initially motivated by his self-studies in Fortran to develop the method. Appearing on ''

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation ''IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Society. It covers research on and applications of all aspects of antenna technology and the propagation of elec ...

'', the article received little attention at the time of its release. The incorrect

numerical stability In the mathematical subfield of numerical analysis, numerical stability is a generally desirable property of numerical algorithms. The precise definition of stability depends on the context. One is numerical linear algebra and the other is algorit ...

conditions on Yee's paper were corrected by Dong-Hoa Lam in 1969 and

Allen Taflove Allen Taflove (June 14, 1949 - April 25, 2021) was a full professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering, since 1988. Since 1972, he pioneered basic theoretical approaches, n ...

and Morris E. Brodwin in 1975. The method was subsequently renamed as

in 1980. FDTD is also referred as Yee algorithm, with its specific discretized grid being known as Yee lattice or Yee cell. Between 1966 and 1984, Yee became a professor of electrical engineering and mathematics at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

and later at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

. He became a consultant to

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

in 1966, working on microwave vulnerability problems at the same institute from 1984 to 1987. In 1987, he became a research scientist at Lockheed

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

Research Lab, working on computational electromagnetics problems and retiring in 1996.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yee, Kane S Living people 1934 births 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century Chinese mathematicians 20th-century American engineers 20th-century Chinese engineers People from Guangzhou Republic of China (1912–1949) emigrants to the United States Chinese electrical engineers American electrical engineers UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Lockheed Missiles and Space Company people Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory staff University of Florida faculty Kansas State University faculty Electrical engineering academics Microwave engineers

Biography

Selected publications

See also

References