Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content
mcmaster university logo McMaster logo

Graduate Studies

Meet the Vice-Provost and Dean

Dr. Steve Hranilovic is the Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies and a professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at McMaster University.

Since being appointed to his role in the School of Graduate Studies in 2022, Dr. Hranilovic has been responsible for fostering innovation, leading the expansion of interdisciplinary offerings, and for enhancing the recruitment of graduate students over McMaster’s six Faculties.

Steve Hranilovic

In 2025, Dr. Hranilovic led the development of the School of Graduate Studies Strategic Plan, a collaborative effort laying the foundation of a strategic framework that fosters excellence in academic and research programming, while cultivating a community of support to ensure the success of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows through all phases of their academic, professional and personal journey.

World-class researcher

Dr. Hranilovic joined McMaster University in 2003. His research is in free-space optics, which establish high-speed wireless communication links using light (rather than radio waves) indoors, underwater, terrestrially and over thousands of kilometres in space. He ranks among the world’s top 100,000 scientists (among 7 million) and is well within the top 2% of scientists globally over all disciplines according to a database published by Stanford University and Elsevier. He has published over 160 papers in refereed international conference proceedings and journals, is the inventor or co-inventor on four patents developed in collaboration with industry and is the author of the seminal book Wireless Optical Communication Systems in 2004.

In 2016, the title of University Scholar was conferred upon him by McMaster University. While in 2022, Dr. Hranilovic was elevated to the prestigious rank of Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in recognition of his research within electrical and electronic engineering disciplines. In the same year, he was also recognized as an Optica Fellow for his leadership and distinguished research contributions in the fields of optics and photonics. In 2023, Dr. Hranilovic was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering for sustained career-long contributions. He is a founding member of the Optical Satellite Communications Consortium, which aims to reduce Canada’s digital divide by developing technologies to bring internet access to northern, remote, and rural communities.

His McMaster journey

In 2019, he was appointed Associate Dean, Undergraduate in McMaster University’s Faculty of Engineering where he led the fundamental reimagining of engineering education for all 6,000 undergraduates. Under his leadership, undergraduate engineering curricula were transformed to integrate rich experiential learning at their core and are considered as a model for revamping engineering programs across Canada and the world.

During his tenure at McMaster, Dr. Hranilovic has supervised to completion 10 doctoral, 25 master, and 24 research undergraduate students, as well as 8 postdoctoral fellows.