Nader Engheta
MS ’79, PhD ’82
Nader Engheta (MS ’79, PhD ’82), the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is recognized for his pioneering advancements in optics, including optical nanocircuits and metamaterials, which have brought a new understanding to how light and materials interact at the nanoscale.
Enghetais the founder of near-zero-index optics, optical nanocircuits, and wave-basedanalog computing based on nanomaterials. His fundamental and transformativecontributions to the electrodynamics of light-matter interactions and to thephysics and engineering of materials at various length scales haverevolutionized how specialized materials can sculpt light, and they have openeddoors to numerous other innovations in optics, electromagnetics, and materialsscience.
He has been honored, among dozens of distinctions,with the 2023 Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute, the 2020 theIsaac Newton Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics in the UnitedKingdom, the 2020 the Max Born Award from the Optica, and a GuggenheimFellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1999. He hasalso been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science, the Canadian Academy of Engineering,and the National Academy of Inventors.