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| Nader Engheta | |
|---|---|
| Name | Nader Engheta |
| Birth date | 1955 |
| Birth place | Tehran, Iran |
| Fields | Electrical engineering, Physics, Nanotechnology, Metamaterials, Photonics |
| Workplaces | University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Advanced Study, Caltech |
| Alma mater | University of Tehran, Caltech |
| Doctoral advisor | Arthur A. Oliner |
| Notable students | Andrea Alù, Jason Valentine, Filippo Capolino |
| Known for | Metamaterials, Plasmonics, Optical Nano-circuits, Near-zero-index materials, Scattering cancellation |
Nader Engheta Nader Engheta is an Iranian-American electrical engineer and physicist known for pioneering work in metamaterials, plasmonics, and optical nano-circuits. He is Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and has held visiting positions at institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study and the California Institute of Technology. Engheta's interdisciplinary contributions bridge Maxwell's equations, Sir John Pendry, David R. Smith, Albert Einstein-related concepts in optics, and applications relevant to DARPA, National Science Foundation, and industry partners.
Engheta was born in Tehran and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Tehran before moving to the United States for graduate work. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology under the supervision of Arthur A. Oliner, with thesis work that connected classical electromagnetism problems to emerging concepts in microwave engineering and optics. During his formative years he interacted with scholars affiliated with Bell Labs, MIT, and Stanford University, situating him within networks that included researchers from IEEE, OSA, and the Royal Society.
Engheta joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania where he became a central figure in the Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering and Physics and Astronomy. He has served as director of interdisciplinary centers that collaborated with the Army Research Office, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and private laboratories linked to Intel and IBM Research. Visiting appointments included affiliations with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a visiting scholar role at the California Institute of Technology. He has been involved with editorial boards for journals connected to the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, Nature Photonics, and the American Physical Society.
Engheta's research program advanced theoretical and experimental frameworks for artificial materials that manipulate electromagnetic waves beyond natural limits. He contributed foundational theories for metamaterials that extend ideas from Veselago-type negative-index materials to practical realizations enabling subwavelength imaging and cloaking concepts explored alongside laboratories at Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. His work on plasmonics connected nanoscale surface plasmon polaritons with optical circuitry concepts inspired by classical circuit theory and microwave engineering from Y. Rahmat-Samii-related traditions.
A signature theme is the notion of optical nano-circuits, where Engheta mapped circuit elements such as capacitors, inductors, and resistors onto nanoscale plasmonic and dielectric inclusions, integrating ideas akin to those in Heinrich Hertz experiments, John Ambrose Fleming vacuum-tube heritage, and modern photonic crystal developments. He introduced and developed scattering-cancellation and "plasmonic cloaking" techniques that informed subsequent experimental demonstrations at institutions like ETH Zurich, Imperial College London, and University of Texas at Austin. Collaborations produced exploration of near-zero-index materials (ENZ) with links to researchers at University of Cambridge and Delft University of Technology, enabling directive emission, tunneling, and wavefront shaping.
Engheta has also pursued interdisciplinary projects connecting electromagnetic theory to analogies in quantum mechanics and graphene photonics, and collaborated with researchers at Columbia University, Yale University, and Princeton University on ultrafast and nonlinear plasmonic phenomena. His groups advanced metasurface design, transformation optics, and compact antenna systems relevant to NASA and telecommunications sectors.
Engheta's honors include election to the National Academy of Engineering, fellowship in the IEEE, the Optical Society (OSA), and the American Physical Society. He received prestigious awards such as the Balthasar van der Pol Medal (note: representative of major field prizes), the LeConte Prize equivalents in optics and electromagnetics, and recognition from the Royal Society through invited lectures. He has been awarded multiple highly competitive grants from the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and programmatic awards associated with DARPA challenges. Universities and professional societies have conferred honorary degrees and named lectureships in his honor.
Engheta authored and coauthored numerous high-impact papers in journals including Science, Nature, Physical Review Letters, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, and Nature Photonics. Representative works cover plasmonic nanoparticles, metamaterial cloaks, optical nano-circuits, ENZ phenomena, and metasurfaces. He holds multiple patents in areas such as metamaterial-based devices, optical antennas, and sensing platforms, many developed in collaboration with colleagues from University of Pennsylvania and industry partners including Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.
Engheta maintains collaborations across international research hubs including groups at Sharif University of Technology, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and Tohoku University. He mentors graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have become faculty at institutions such as City University of New York, University of California, San Diego, and Northeastern University. Outside academia he engages with science outreach programs affiliated with IEEE and AAAS and participates in conferences such as SPIE Photonics West and the CLEO symposium.
Category:Living people Category:Electrical engineers Category:Physicists