Stephen Jon Blank received the B.E.E. degree from the City College of New York , the M.E.E. from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn , the M. Sc. in Mathematics from Adelphi University and the Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University.

He has worked on research and development in the field of antennas, microwaves and electromagnetics for many years. At AIL, L.I., NY, he worked on circularly polarized horns, surface wave antennas, broadband baluns and ELINT techniques. At the Grumman Aerospace Corp, L.I., NY, he was Antenna Group Leader on the F-111B project and co-inventor of the circularly polarized trihedral reflector, used for automated carrier landings by the U.S. Navy. In 1984, he received a NASA Certificate of Recognition for developing the algorithm for the Empirical Optimization of Antenna Arrays. The computer code that he developed to implement the empirical optimization algorithm is available to the electronics industry as part of NASA’s computer library, COSMOS. At JPL, Pasadena, CA, he worked on the design of array feeds for distortion correction and vernier beamsteering of large reflector antennas. In 1982 he founded a consulting company, IBE Systems; working mainly in the field of broadcast engineering, SW/AM/FM radio and TV, in the U.S. and overseas. He co-authored the chapter on Directional Couplers for the Handbook of Microwave Technology, Academic Press, 1995. In 1996, he worked on the development of array antennas for MRI systems.

He has had various papers published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and has also served as a reviewer. From 1989 to 1994 he was chairman of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, NY/LI section. In 1992 he was technical chair and in 1994, chairman-at -large, of the IEEE Symposium on Adaptive Arrays. He was technical chairman of the Task Force on Energy Conservation and Radiation Hazard Reduction, IEEE LI section. In 1995, he received the IEEE Region 1 Electrical Engineering Professionalism Award for his contributions to energy conservation and radiation hazard reduction. In 1998, he was invited to lecture on the subject of Vertical Polarization for FM Broadcasting at the 21st Congress of the Association of Brazilian Broadcasters in Iguacu, Brazil.

He is now Professor of Electrical Engineering at the New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY.