Jin Au Kong. Jin Au Kong (Traditional Chinese: 孔金甌; Simplified Chinese: 孔金瓯; 27 December 1942 – 13 March 2008) was a Taiwanese-American electrical engineer. He was an expert in applied electromagnetics. He was a 74th-generation lineal descendant of the famous Chinese philosopher Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC).

Biography
Kong was born in Gaochun, Jiangsu Province. He received his Bachelor of Science from the National Taiwan University in 1962, his M.S. from the National Chiao Tung University in 1965, and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1968. His PhD thesis supervisor was David K. Cheng. Kong did his postdoctoral research at Syracuse University as well from 1968 to 1969. From 1969 to 1971, he was the Vinton Hayes Postdoctoral Fellow of Engineering.

Kong then moved to MIT, where he remained for the rest of his academic career, as assistant professor from 1969 to 1973, associate professor from 1973 to 1980, and promoted to  full professor in 1980. From 1977 until his death in 2008, Kong served as a United Nations high-level consultant to the undersecretary-general, as well as an interregional advisor on remote sensing technology for the United Nations Department of Technical Cooperation for Development. At MIT and later Zhejiang University, Kong supervised about 50 PhD theses and 90 Master theses. Among Kong's PhD graduates were Leung Tsang, Weng Chew, Tarek Habashy, Shun-Lien Chuang, Apo Sezginer, Robert Shin, Jay K Lee,  Eni Njoku, Michael Zuniga,  Jean-Fu Kiang, Maurice Borgeaud, Soon Poh,  Simon Yueh, Son Nghiem, Yaqiu Jin, Eric Yang, William Au, Joel Johnson, Chi On Ao, Henning Braunisch,  Bae Ian Wu, Xudong Chen, Baile Zhang, Hongsheng Chen, etc. . From 1984 to 2003, he was the chairman of Area IV on Energy and Electromagnetic Systems at MIT. From 1989 until 2008, Kong was director of the Center for Electromagnetic Theory and Applications in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT.

Kong was the founding president of The Electromagnetics Academy from 1989 to 2008. He also founded the academy's China branch at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, known as The Electromagnetics Academy at Zhejiang University, serving as its dean from 2003 to 2008.

Kong was also the founding chair of the Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), from 1989 to 2008. From 1987 to 2008, he was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications. He was the founding chief editor for Progress in Electromagnetics Research (PIER) series (1989–2008), chief editor for Progress In Electromagnetics Research (PIER) Letters, B, M, C in 2008, and chief editor for PIERS Online from 2005 to 2008.

Honors and awards 
Kong was rewarded with many honors and awards during his life, including:
 Fellow, The Electromagnetics Academy
 Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
 Fellow, Optical Society of America
 Distinguished Achievement Award, from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, 2000
 IEEE Electromagnetics Award, 2004
 Honorary doctorate from Paris X University Nanterre, 2006

Books 
 Electromagnetic Wave Theory, J. A. Kong, EMW Publishing, 1016 pg, 2008 (Previous editions by Wiley-Interscience: 1975, 1986 and 1990 and EMW Publishing: 1998, 2000 and 2005)
 Maxwell Equations, J. A. Kong, EMW Publishing, 398 pg, 2002
 Theory of Microwave Remote Sensing, L. Tsang, J. A. Kong and R.T. Shin, Wiley-Interscience, 613 pages, 1985
 Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves: Theories and Applications, L. Tsang, J. A. Kong and K. H. Ding, Wiley-Interscience, 426 pg, 2000
 Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves: Numerical Simulations, L. Tsang, J. A. Kong, K. H. Ding and C. Ao, Wiley-Interscience, 705 pg, 2001
 Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves: Advanced Topics, L. Tsang and J. A. Kong, Wiley-Interscience, 413 pg, 2001
 Applied Electromagnetism, L.C. Shen and J. A. Kong, PWS, 1987
 Electromagnetic Waves, David H. Staelin, Ann W. Morgenthaler and Jin Au Kong, 1993

See also
List of textbooks in electromagnetism

References

External links
 Jin Au Kong's homepage at MIT
 MIT News: Jin Au Kong, long-serving EECS professor, dies aged 65
 Jin Au Kong at IEEE

1942 births
2008 deaths
Fellows of the IEEE
Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
Academic staff of Zhejiang University
Fellows of Optica (society)
Scientists from Nanjing
Chinese electrical engineers
Electrical engineering academics
National Chiao Tung University alumni
National Taiwan University alumni
Syracuse University alumni
Chinese non-fiction writers
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Microwave engineers
20th-century non-fiction writers
Metamaterials scientists
Descendants of Confucius
American people of Taiwanese descent
Taiwanese expatriates in the United States