I received the B.Eng. degree from Hanoi University of Technology, Vietnam in 2002, the M.Sc. degree (with Graduate Thesis Award) and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada in 2004 and 2008, respectively, all in Electrical and Computer Engineering. From May 2008 to July 2010, I was at McGill University as a Postdoctoral Scholar under the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, and subsequently worked as a Research Associate until July 2011. Since August 2011, I have been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Akron, OH, USA, where I am currently a Full Professor and the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies. Previously, I served as the ABET coordinator of the ECE department for 10 years (2016–2026).
My research interests span the areas of communication and information theories, signal processing, classical and quantum error-correcting codes, satellite and space communications, and physical-layer and network security. My work has been supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), NASA, and industry. In Summer 2026, I was a NASA Glenn Faculty Fellow, investigating 3GPP capabilities for lunar surface communications. I also work as a consultant in the satellite industry, with recent projects focusing on SATCOM operational resiliency with LinQuest Corporation and OTFS-based waveform design and analysis for covert Doppler-resilient LEO satellite communications with KBR.
I have served as an Area Editor (01/2024–Present), Senior Editor (09/2019–12/2023), and Editor (02/2016–08/2019) for IEEE Communications Letters; an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (2021–Present); an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications (2016–2021); and an Editor for Elsevier Physical Communication (10/2015–12/2021).