We remember John Kountouriotis, who passed away on 1 October 2013 after a long illness. At the time of his death, John was a doctoral student at the Drexel Wireless Systems Laboratory (DWSL), advised by Dr. Kapil Dandekar. He had also been working with Adant, a communication company that develops antenna systems for wireless communications.
John Kountouriotis was born in New York City on 6 January 1979, and grew up in Greece. He held a Bachelor of Science degree from the National Technical University of Athens, where he was advised by Dr. Fillipos Constantinou, and a Master of Science degree from Drexel University. His research in the last few years focused on reconfigurable antennas for communication networks, and on software defined radio. Among other journals, his work was published in the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing and the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. His work has attracted a large (and growing) number of citations by other researchers – in journals, conference proceedings, and doctoral dissertations. His reputation and influence were clearly on the ascent.
Beyond his considerable success as a researcher and author, and his reputation as the “go to guy” among his peers on all matters related to communication systems, antennas and radio, John was a colleague, partner and friend. He was known as a willing and very effective mentor to many younger students – in the DWSL and in the classes he taught. In an award nomination letter we received about him, he was described as “a deeply caring and kind individual. His caring and kindness are clearly on display when he teaches a class, mentors undergraduate and graduate students, even when he performs research. In many ways, we think of him as the heart of our research group. I once overheard him describe our research group as a “family” to another graduate student. This characteristic of us being a “family” is due, in no small part, to his presence among us.”
John is survived by his wife Yianna, and we express our heartfelt condolences to her and the rest of his family and friends. It is our understanding that John’s funeral will take place in Greece – a separate announcement will be made on a memorial event in Philadelphia.