Dr. Paknys was born in Montreal, Canada. He received the B.Eng. degree from McGill University in 1979, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Ohio State University in 1982 and 1985, respectively, all in electrical engineering. He worked as a graduate research assistant at the OSU ElectroScience Laboratory.
He was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Clarkson University during 1985-87 and an electromagnetics engineer at MPB Technologies during 1987-89. He joined the Concordia ECE Department as an assistant professor in 1989, was promoted to an associate professor in 1995 and professor in 2005. He retired in 2021, as a professor emeritus. In 2022 he became a distinguished professor emeritus, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to his field, department, faculty, and university.
His research contributions are in electromagnetics and related areas: geometrical theory of diffraction, physical optics, ray tracing ☉ guided wave theory: surface and leaky waves, creeping waves ☉ Green's functions ☉ aircraft and ship antennas ☉ radar cross section analysis ☉ electromagnetic compatibility for antenna systems.
He has taught courses in electromagnetics, antennas, microwaves, acoustics, and engineering mathematics. He created labs for the microwaves course in 1997 and the antennas course in 2009.
He was a visiting professor at the University of Auckland in 1996, the University of Houston in 2004, and Ecole Polytechnique in 2010. He is the author of a graduate-level book "Applied Frequency-Domain Electromagnetics" published by Wiley/IEEE Press. He served the ECE department as the undergraduate program director, associate chair, and department chair. He has served as a consultant for the government and industry. He presently works with Infield Scientific, Inc. on the electromagnetic analysis of navy ships.Dr. Paknys is a member of CNC-URSI Commission B, a senior member of the IEEE, a registered professional engineer, and a past associate editor (2004-2010) for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. He is a licensed radio amateur with callsign VE3KBP.