Our previous work in quantifying the electromagnetic absorption for humans and animals, albeit for plane-wave exposure conditions and simple modifications thereof, has had significant impact for a new, lower, frequency-dependent safety standard in Canada and a recently accepted safety guide by ANSI in the United States. The research proposed here is to extend this work to the cases of coupled/uncoupled near-field and partial body exposure conditions that are perhaps more relevant. A major emphasis of this work would also be to develop efficient numerical procedures to be able to model the human body by its inhomogeneous dielectric properties in 1,000+ cells, bringing thereby a degree of realism heretofore not possible. For believability and to refine theoretical models, the highlights of the numerical calculations would be checked experimentally with full-scale models by Dr. Stuchly and his colleagues at the University of Ottawa, using their unique computer-controlled E-mapping system. Electromagnetic modeling of the human body by its inhomogeneous dielectric properties is likely to have wide-ranging applications, including dosimetry for assessment of biological effects, controlled distributed heating for cancer therapy and hypothermia, noninvasive biomedical imaging, etc.
