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Engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and the AMOLF institute in the Netherlands have invented the first mechanical metamaterials that easily transfer motion effortlessly in one direction while blocking it in the other, as described in a paper published on Feb. 13 in Nature. The material can be thought of as a mechanical one-way shield that blocks energy from coming in but easily transmits it going out the other side.

Prof. Andrea Alù has been named the recipient of the inaugural ACS Photonics Young Investigator Award and Lectureship from the American Chemical Society (ACS). The award “honors the contributions of one individual, within the first 5-10 years of an independent research career, who has made major impacts on the field of photonics.” Prof. Alù will receive the award and be the plenary speaker at META’16, the 7th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics, in Malaga, Spain in July 2016.