Dr. Kristy Hecht

Dr. Kristy Hecht, a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, earned her Bachelor’s of Science (cum laude), Master’s degrees, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 2019, 2020, and 2023, respectively. Her research focuses on metasurface antennas, particularly in developing antennas with dual-frequency operation, dual polarization, and high efficiency for telecommunication applications. In addition to her current work, she has contributed to antenna design for RADAR and other telecommunication applications in both optical and microwave ranges. Dr. Hecht has also delved into reconfigurable and additive manufacturable metasurface antennas, as well as exploring PTD symmetric materials and time-varying media.


Education: 
  • 2023: Doctorate of Electrical Engineering from University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • 2020: Master’s of Electrical Engineering from University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • 2019: Bachelor of Science (cum laude)  from University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Research Interests: 
  • Electromagnetic theory and modeling
  • Metasurfaces for microwave and optical regimes
  • Periodic structures
  • Time-varying media
  • Broadband impedance matching
  • Additive manufactured electromagnetic devices

Professional Experience: 
  • 2024: JPL Postdoc
  • 2023: JPL Intern
  • 2019-2023: Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant at UNCC
  • 2020: Characterization Mobile Intern at Qorvo
  • 2015-2018: Instrumentation and Controls Systems Intern


Selected Publications: 
  1. Hecht et al. Patent CIT-8923-P, "Orthogonally Selected Multi-Band Metasurface Antenna for Next Generation Telecommunication and Remote Sensing Applications", filed on11/21/2022.
  2. Hecht, Kristy, Nacer Chahat, Goutam Chattopadhyay, Enrica Martini, and Mario Junior Mencagli. "A New Strategy for Designing Dual-band Antennas Based on Double-layer Metasurfaces." arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.15999 (2023).
  3. Hecht, Kristy, David González-Ovejero, Dimitrios L. Sounas, and Mario Junior Mencagli. "First-principles analysis of energy exchange in time-varying capacitors for energy trapping applications." IEEE Access (2023).
  4. K. Hecht, N. Chahat, G. Chattopadhyay, E. Martini, and M. J. Mencagli, "Dual-Layered Metasurface Antennas for Dual-Band Operations", URSI EMTS, Vancouver, Canada, May 2023.
  5. Hecht, Kristy, David González-Ovejero, and Mario Junior Mencagli. "Dispersion Characteristics of Additive-Manufactured Metasurfaces." 2023 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP). IEEE, 2023.
  6. Hecht, Kristy, and Mario Junior Mencagli. "Funneling Electromagnetic Waves with PTD Symmetric Metastructures." In 2023 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), pp. 1-3. IEEE, 2023.
  7. Hecht, Kristy, Md Shohel Amin, Dustin Louisos, Mario Junior Mencagli, Tino Hofmann, Andrew Willis, and Jimmy E. Touma. "Radar Applications of a Prototype Dual-Band Metamaterial and Metasurface Antenna." In 2023 IEEE Research and Applications of Photonics in Defense Conference (RAPID), pp. 1-2. IEEE, 2023.
  8. Hecht, Kristy A., and Mario Junior Mencagli. "PTD symmetric wideband absorbers." In 2022 16th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), pp. 1-2. IEEE, 2022.
  9. Hecht, Kristy A., Christopher G. Daniel, and Thomas P. Weldon. "Effect of external source impedance on the input impedance of digital impedance circuits." In 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), pp. 1-5. IEEE, 2020.
Kristy Hecht
Address: 
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
Phone: (704) 681-2561
Email: 
Kristy.hecht@jpl.nasa.gov