| Description | Near-Zero Photonics Recent development in nanotechnology, nanoscience and materials science and engineering has provided opportunities to construct structures with unprecedented attributes and characteristics in manipulating waves and fields. We are exploring light-matter interaction in platforms with extreme scenarios, such as near-zero relative permittivity and near-zero relative permeability, and with extreme features such as very high phase velocity, very low energy velocity, nonreciprocal vortices at the nanoscale, giant anisotropy and nonlinearity, “near-zero” photonics, nanoscale computation with optical nanocircuits, and more. Such “extreme metamaterials” provide us with exciting features and functionalities for wave-based paradigms such as low-index optics, acoustics and thermodynamics. I will discuss some of our ongoing work in these areas, will present some of the opportunities and challenges, and will forecast some future directions and possibilities. Biography Nader Engheta is the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, with affiliations in the Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, and Bioengineering. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Tehran, and his M.S and Ph.D. degrees from Caltech. He has received several awards for his research including the 2015 Gold Medal from SPIE, the 2015 Fellow of US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the 2015 National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow (NSSEFF) Award (also known as Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow Award) from US Department of Defense, the 2015 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Achievement Award, the 2014 Balthasar van der Pol Gold Medal from the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), the 2013 Inaugural SINA Award in Engineering, the 2012 IEEE Electromagnetics Award, 2006 Scientific American Magazine 50 Leaders in Science and Technology, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. He is a Fellow of six international scientific and technical societies, i.e., IEEE, OSA, APS, MRS, SPIE, and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
His current research activities span a broad range of areas including nanophotonics, metamaterials, nano-scale optics, graphene optics, imaging and sensing inspired by eyes of animal species, optical nanoengineering, microwave and optical antennas, and physics and engineering of fields and waves. He has co-edited (with R. W. Ziolkowski) the book entitled “Metamaterials: Physics and Engineering Explorations” by Wiley-IEEE Press, 2006. Molecular Engineering and Sciences Seminar Series This weekly seminar brings together students, faculty and invited guests from various disciplines across campus to explore current trends in molecular engineering and nanotechnology. It is a forum for active interdisciplinary discussions. These talks are open to the public and attract a diverse audience of students and faculty. |
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