Mahta Moghaddam

Mahta Moghaddam is the William M. Hogue Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), where she leads the Microwave Systems, Sensors, and Imaging Lab (MiXIL) and directs the USC Viterbi Center for Arid Climate WAter REsearch (AWARE). She previously served as Professor at the University of Michigan (2003-2011) and worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1991-2003).

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1991)
• Thesis advisor: Weng Cho Chew

Her research focuses on microwave sensing of the environment, inverse scattering and imaging, soil moisture/permafrost mapping, and electromagnetic applications in medicine. She develops advanced algorithms for radar systems to study climate change impacts, including Arctic permafrost dynamics and wildfire monitoring via satellite constellations.

Her recent publications emphasize machine learning integration with physics-based models for soil moisture retrieval (CYGNSS, SMAP), UAV-mounted radar for subsurface exploration, and GNSS-Reflectometry applications. Key subfields include thermal therapy monitoring, sensor networks, and multi-frequency microwave imaging.

• National Academy of Engineering (2019)
• IEEE Fellow (2008)
• NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal (2016)
• Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize (2017)

She has supervised numerous Ph.D. and M.S. students, including current advisees Amir Azemati, Kazem Bakian-Dogaheh, and alumni such as Pan Liang and Alireza Tabatabaeenejad. Her work is supported by grants from NASA, NSF, and DoD.