Akhlesh Lakhtakia is Evan Pugh University Professor and Charles Godfrey Binder Professor of engineering science and mechanics at the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. His research focuses on electromagnetic fields in complex materials, such as

sculptured thin films Sculptured thin films (STFs) are nanostructured materials with unidirectionally varying properties that can be designed and realized in a controllable manner using variants of physical vapor deposition. The ability to virtually instantaneously cha ...

, chiral materials, bianisotropy and industrially scalable bioreplication, an emerging form of engineered

biomimicry Biomimetics or biomimicry is the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The terms "biomimetics" and "biomimicry" are derived from grc, βίος (''bios''), life, and μίμησ ...

applied to harvesting of solar energy and pest eradication. His technique for visualization of latent fingerprints was covered in the

NOVA A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

documentary series "Forensics on Trial".

Family

Akhlesh Lakhtakia was born in Lucknow, India on July 1, 1957, to Servesh Kumar and Gayatri Devi Lakhtakia. He married Mercedes N. Scabbiolo in 1982, with whom he has a daughter named Natalya Sheetal Lakhtakia.

Education

He was schooled in Lucknow (St. Cathedral School), New Delhi (Cambridge School), and Lucknow (St. Francis' High School). Appearing for final examinations in November 1973, at the end of the 11th grade, he was awarded the

Indian School Certificate The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) is an examination conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, a private board designed to provide an examination in a course of general education, in accordance wi ...

in 1974. He obtained a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics Engineering from the

Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi (IIT BHU) is a Public university, public technical university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1919 as the Banaras Engineering college, Engineering College, it became the Institu ...

in 1979; Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA in 1981 and 1983, respectively.

Academic career

In 1983, Lakhtakia joined the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University, where he was elevated to the rank of ''Distinguished Professor'' of Engineering Science and Mechanics in January 2004. In 2006, he became the ''Charles Godfrey Binder (Endowed) Professor'' of Engineering Science and Mechanics. In 2018, he became an ''Evan Pugh University Professor''. He has published more than 840 journal articles; has contributed 27 chapters to research books and encyclopedias; has edited, co-edited, authored or co-authored 17 books and 20 conference proceedings; has reviewed for 159 journals; serves on the editorial boards of four electromagnetics journals; was the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal ''Speculations in Science and Technology'' from 1993 to 1995; and became the first editor-in-chief (2007-2013) of the online ''Journal of Nanophotonics'' published by SPIE from 2007.

Honors and awards

He served as an international lecturer for the International Commission for Optics and the Optical Society of America; was twice a visiting professor of physics at Universidad de Buenos Aires, a visiting professor of physics at the University of Otago, a visiting fellow in mathematics at the University of Glasgow, and a visiting professor of physics at Imperial College London from 2004 to 2007; headed the IEEE EMC Technical Committee on Nonsinusoidal Fields from 1992 to 1994; and is a Fellow of Optical Society of America, SPIE,

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, the Institute of Physics (UK), the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), and the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(UK). He also served as the 1995 Scottish Amicable Visiting Lecturer in mathematics at the University of Glasgow. He received the PSES Outstanding Research Award in 1996, the PSES Premier Research Award in 2008, the PSES Outstanding Advising Award in 2005, and the PSEAS Outstanding Teaching Award in 2016. For his research on sculptured thin films and complex-medium electromagnetics, he received the Faculty Scholar Medal in Engineering in 2005, and a Doctor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering from the Banaras Hindu University in 2006. Nanotech Briefs recognized him in 2006 with a Nano 50 Award for Innovation. The University of Utah made him a Distinguished Alumnus in 2007, and the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi in 2014. He was named the winner of the Technical Achievement Award for the year 2010 by SPIE, and of the Walston Chubb Award for Innovation for the year 2016 by Sigma Xi, for conceptualizing and developing sculptured thin films in diverse arenas.

Research areas

His current research interests lie in the electromagnetics of complex materials, sculptured thin films, carbon nanotubes, nanoengineered metamaterials, biomimetics (especially bioreplication),

forensic science Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...

, and negative refraction. At Penn State, he co-developed a course on green engineering for undergraduate engineering students, as well as a course on fundamentals of engineering principles and design for pre-service elementary schoolteachers.

Religious views

Dr. Lakhtakia is an atheist but he derives inspiration from the

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...

and the

Sermon on the Mount The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is ...

Books

* Time-Harmonic Fields in Chiral Media (1989).
Selected Papers on Natural Optical Activity (1990)

* ttp://ebooks.worldscinet.com/ISBN/9789812812100/toc.shtml Beltrami Fields in Chiral Media (1994)
Selected Papers on Linear Optical Composite Materials(1996)

* ttp://spie.org/x648.xml?product_id=504610 Introduction to Complex Mediums for Optics and Electromagnetics (2003)
Nanometer Structures: Theory, Modeling, and Simulation (2004)

Sculptured Thin Films: Nanoengineered Morphology and Optics (2005)

Selected Papers on Nanotechnology--Theory and Modeling (2006)

Optical Guided-wave Chemical and Biosensors I (2010)

Optical Guided-wave Chemical and Biosensors II (2010)

Nanotechnology: A Crash Course (2010)

Engineered Biomimicry (2013)

Electromagnetic Surface Waves: A Modern Perspective (2013)

Modern Analytical Electromagnetic Homogenization (2015)

The World of Applied Electromagnetics: In Appreciation of Magdy Fahmy Iskander (2018)

Infinite-Space Dyadic Green Functions in Electromagnetism (2018)

Electromagnetic Anisotropy and Bianisotropy: A Field Guide (2nd Edition) (2019)

The Transfer-Matrix Method in Electromagnetics and Optics (2020)