David K. Cheng

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David Keun Cheng (January 10, 1918 – August 22, 2012) was a Chinese-born American professor of electrical engineering known for his work in electromagnetics. His 1983 textbook Field and Wave Electromagnetics is widely cited, and his research has appeared in thousands of publications. By 2016, his book was held in about 500 libraries worldwide.

Early life and education
Cheng earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from National Chiao Tung University in Shanghai in 1938, graduating at the top of his class. He then worked as a research engineer at the Central Radio Corporation in China for five years. He went on to Harvard University, where he earned an S.M. in 1944 and a Sc.D. in 1946, becoming a Charles Storrow Scholar and a Gordon McKay Scholar during his time there.

Career
Cheng worked as a project engineer at the U.S. Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories from 1946 to 1948. In 1948, he joined Syracuse University’s Department of Electrical Engineering, where he became a full professor in 1955 and later retired as Centennial Professor Emeritus in 1984. He held leadership roles at Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome, NY (1952–53) and at IBM facilities in Endicott and Poughkeepsie (1953–55). He was honored as Centennial Professor in 1970 and received the Chancellor’s Citation for exceptional academic achievement in 1981.

Books, awards, and achievements
Cheng published four books, including Field and Wave Electromagnetics (1983; translated into Chinese with a second edition in 1989) and Fundamentals of Engineering Electromagnetics (1993). He authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles and numerous reports. He received several best paper awards and honors such as the Achievement Award of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, the Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society’s Distinguished Service Award, and a Sigma Xi research award. He was a Life Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the British Institution of Electrical Engineers, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He belonged to the New York Academy of Sciences, Sigma Xi, and Eta Kappa Nu. Cheng was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1960–61) to study and conduct research in London and Munich, and he was selected as an Exchange Scientist by the National Academy of Sciences to Hungary (1972), Yugoslavia (1974), and Poland and Romania (1978). He also served as a Liaison Scientist at the London Office of Naval Research (1975–76) and worked as a consultant for GE, IBM, TRW, and Syracuse Research Corporation. He held honorary professorships at several universities and received honorary doctorates from Chiao Tung University (Taiwan) in 1985 and Xidian University (China) in 1998.

Legacy
In 1996, SJTU established and funded an Award for Teaching and Research Excellence in his name, recognizing outstanding teachers, researchers, and students. Cheng is remembered for his significant contributions to electromagnetics and his influence as an educator.