MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY
International impact: Memorial telecommunications engineer inducted into European academy

A Memorial University researcher has been inducted into Academia Europaea, the Academy of Europe.

The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science's Dr. Octavia A. Dobre is among the select group of scholars invited to join the academy after an extensive peer review of nominations.

Dr. Octavia Dobre. Photo: Rich Blenkinsopp

She was elected in recognition of her sustained academic excellence and global standing in telecommunications engineering.

Academia Europaea is a pan-European academy of science, humanities and letters, with more than 5,500 eminent scholars from across the globe.

Its membership spans all disciplines from the humanities and law to economics, mathematics, medicine and natural and technological sciences.

The academy promotes research, advises governments and international organizations on scientific matters and fosters interdisciplinary and international collaboration.

New generations of wireless technologies

As the tier-1 Canada Research Chair in ubiquitous connectivity at Memorial University, Dr. Dobre's research drives wireless communications technologies for the sixth generation (6G) and beyond.

Her expertise includes artificial intelligence, machine learning and quantum computing with applications to communications and networks. She is also recognized for her contributions to reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) and non-orthogonal multiple access.

One of her notable innovations, STAR-RIS (simultaneous transmitting and reflecting RIS), enables the enhancement of spectral efficiency and coverage of wireless networks, significantly boosting their energy efficiency.

"This innovation advances the communication systems by overcoming fundamental problems of signal propagation," said Dr. Dobre.

Background

Dr. Dobre has published 390 peer-reviewed journal articles, received more than 33,000 citations, and holds an h-index of 85. Her editorial leadership includes serving as the founding editor-in-chief of the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society and previously as editor-in-chief of IEEE Communications Letters, roles that underscore her international impact and leadership in telecommunications research.

She has demonstrated a sustained commitment to mentoring across all career stages, including graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, early-career professionals, and mid-career colleagues, a contribution recognized with the IEEE Women in Communications Engineering Outstanding Mentorship Award.

She spearheads activities for promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As the first chair of the IEEE Women in Communications Engineering standing committee, she worked tirelessly to promote the inclusion of women and other under-represented populations in engineering fields, advancing a more professionally inclusive culture.

Dr. Dobre has also been called upon to serve on high-level advisory committees. She chaired the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grants Evaluation Committee for Electrical and Computer Engineering, contributed to European Research Council evaluation panels and serves on the research advisory committee of the Centre Tecnològic de Telecommunications de Catalunya.

She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 2024, she was named a highly cited researcher by Clarivate, which places her among the top 0.1 per cent of scientists worldwide.