How electromagnetic, acoustic and optic waves interact with materials creates a foundation for various scientific and technological phenomena. With the invention of metamaterials over the last decades, wave matter interactions not found in nature have opened new possibilities for manipulating wave types across different frequencies.
Recent WNCG alumnus, Dr. Francesco Monticone, focused his doctoral dissertation on the extent that researchers can engineer the scattering response of these waves, using metamaterials and plasmonic nanomaterials, to create effects such as invisibility, resonant super-scattering and light-trapping.
These advances may pave the way to a new generation of electromagnetic and optical devices that are smaller, thinner, faster, and more energy efficient than today’s technology.
For this groundbreaking research, Dr. Monticone was recently awarded the UT Austin inaugural Margarida Jacome Dissertation Prize for his dissertation entitled “Scattering Engineering at the Extreme with Metamaterials, Metasurfaces, and Nanostructures.”
The prize, established in memory of Dr. Margarida Jacome, a former computer engineering professor at UT Austin, was developed as a way to recognize graduating or recent PhD alumni who performed exceptional research. Only students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department may be considered for this award. The recipient of the award receives $1,700.
Dr. Lizy John, the B.N. Gafford Professor of Electrical Engineering at UT Austin, presented the award. During his time at UT Austin, Dr. Monticone was advised by WNCG Prof. Andrea Alù. Dr. Monticone, a former recipient of the WNCG Student Leadership Award, is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University.