Professor Nikolay Zheludev becomes member of US National Academy of Engineering

The United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has recognised Professor Nikolay Zheludev for his leadership and technical contributions to optical materials and nanophotonics.

The Deputy Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre becomes the first academic from the University of Southampton to ever been elected to NAE.

Election to NAE membership represents one of the highest professional honours and Nikolay becomes only the 43rd current UK-based engineer to be named a Foreign Member. He was formally inducted at the 2019 NAE Annual Meeting in Washington DC on Sunday 6th October.

"This entry is recognition of the importance of fundamental research for developing future technologies", Nikolay says. For example, our current work on topological electrodynamics with the US funding agencies could have intriguing future applications.

"My prime research interests at the moment are in applications of artificial intelligence to solve hard problems of optics, such as super-resolution imaging. I am also working on electrodynamics of novel types of electromagnetic waves and anapoles, 'invisible' electromagnetic excitation in matter, and on developing the third generation of photonic metamaterials with unique functionalities, topological and quantum properties that are not available in natural materials."

NAE membership is proposed by current members for those who have distinguished themselves in business an academic management, in technical positions, as university pioneers and as leaders in government and private engineering organisations.

Nikolay is the co-director of The Photonics Institute at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and is a founding member of the closely interlinked fields of metamaterials and nanophotonics. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2018 for his outstanding contributions to science and was awarded the Thomas Young Medal in 2015 for 'global leadership and pioneering, seminal work in optical metamaterials and nanophotonics'.