FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
(born 9 October 1965 in
Bad Schlema
Bad Schlema is a community in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony in Germany. It was merged into the new town Aue-Bad Schlema in January 2019. It belongs to the Silberberg Town League (''Städtebund Silberberg''). The Silver Road (''Silbers ...
,
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
) is a German and British scientist. In 2006, he published the first scientific paper on invisibility cloaking with
metamaterial
A metamaterial (from the Greek word μετά ''meta'', meaning "beyond" or "after", and the Latin word ''materia'', meaning "matter" or "material") is any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. ...
s at the same time Pendry's group published their paper in the journal ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
''. He has been involved with the science of
cloaking
Cloaking is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the user's browser. This is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the User ...
objects since then.
Biography
He is a
Wolfson Research Merit Award
The Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award was an award made by the Royal Society from 2000 to 2020.
It was administered by the Royal Society and jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the UK Office of Science and Technology, to provide ...
holder from the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, and he is currently Professor of Physics at the
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...
. He is involved in research pertaining to metamaterials. Specific disciplines are
quantum electrodynamics
In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and spec ...
event horizon
In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s.
In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive compact obj ...
metamaterial cloaking
Metamaterial cloaking is the usage of metamaterials in an cloaking device, invisibility cloak. This is accomplished by manipulating the paths traversed by light through a novel optical material. Metamaterials direct and control the Wave propagati ...
,
quantum effects
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
of optical phenomena involving
Hawking radiation
Hawking radiation is theoretical black body radiation that is theorized to be released outside a black hole's event horizon because of relativistic quantum effects. It is named after the physicist Stephen Hawking, who developed a theoretical arg ...
theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...
) from the
Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
. From 1998 to 2000 he was in Stockholm at the
Royal Institute of Technology
The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technolo ...
as a Göran-Gustafsson Fellow. He held the chair (theoretical physics) at the
University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
in Scotland between April, 2000 and 2012. Since 2012 he has been a Professor of Physics at the
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...
.
Awards and honors
Professor Ulf Leonhardt is a Fellow of the
Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application.
It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...
. He is also a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
. He is a recipient of the Otto Hahn Award of the
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
. In August 2009, the Royal Society's Theo Murphy Blue Skies award allowed Leonhardt to research a new theory for applying metamaterials to optical cloaking full-time.
Books authored
Ulf Leonhardt has authored, coauthored or edited the following books:
* 277 pages.
*Ulf Leonhardt and Thomas Philbin (2010). Geometry and Light. The Science of Invisibility. Dover Publications, Inc. . 278 pages.
* 208 pages PDF available here
China Experiences
Ulf ventured into China in 2011 to collaborate with researchers and academics.
In particular, he participated in "China 1000 Talent" program and the "Guangzhou Leading Overseas Talent" program.
Such programs come with both individual cash bonus and research funding. Ulf was hosted by a research center
at
South China Normal University
South China Normal University (SCNU; ) is a comprehensive university that is part of Double First Class University Plan and Project 211 in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in the People's Republic of China. It is a Chinese state Doubl ...
in Guangzhou, China and in 2012, he was awarded funding for both programs.
However, Ulf later realized there were possible foul play with the award money by his China counterparts.
He later engaged a lawyer to investigate and Science magazine published an article entitled "Show me the Money?" in October 2014 to reveal more on the insights. Various news media began to cover
on this topic to warn foreign researchers and academics to be extra careful with foreign work contracts and in award
funds handling and administration.
Around half a year later, in a later issue of Science magazine in 2015, Langping He, the Deputy Dean of the Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research (COER) and Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, published a response letter titled ''A Chinese physics institute's defense''. In the response letter, the COER side addressed many allegations in the earlier article.
See also
''Metamaterial scientists''
*
Andrea Alù
Andrea Alù (born September 27, 1978) is an Italian American scientist and engineer, currently Einstein Professor of Physics at The City University of New York Graduate Center. He is known for his contributions to the fields of optics, photonics, ...
*
Christophe Caloz
Christophe Caloz (born May 8, 1969, Sierre, Switzerland) is a researcher and professor of electrical engineering and physics at KU Leuven. He graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he received a D ...
*
Nader Engheta
Nader Engheta ( fa, نادر انقطاع) (born 1955 in Tehran) is an Iranian-American scientist. He has made pioneering contributions to the fields of metamaterials, transformation optics, plasmonic optics, nanophotonics, graphene photonics, n ...
John Pendry
Sir John Brian Pendry, (born 4 July 1943) is an English theoretical physicist known for his research into refractive indices and creation of the first practical "Invisibility, Invisibility Cloak". He is a professor of theoretical solid state ph ...
Costas Soukoulis
Costas M. Soukoulis ( el, Κώστας Μ. Σούκουλης) is a Senior Scientist in the Ames Laboratory and Distinguished Professor of Physics Emeritusat Iowa State University. He received his B.Sc. from University of Athens in 1974. He obtain ...
*
Victor Veselago
Victor Georgievich Veselago (13 June 1929, Ukraine
– 15 September 2018)Richard W. Ziolkowski
''Past artificial material scientists''
*
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
(;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...
*
Horace Lamb
Sir Horace Lamb (27 November 1849 – 4 December 1934)R. B. Potts,, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 5, MUP, 1974, pp 54–55. Retrieved 5 Sep 2009 was a British applied mathematician and author of several influential texts on ...
*
Winston E. Kock
Winston Edward Kock (1909 – November 25, 1982) was an American electrical engineer and musician, who was the first Director of NASA Electronics Research Center (NASA ERC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from September 1, 1964 to October 1, 1966. The ...
Leonid Mandelstam
Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam or Mandelshtam ( be, Леанід Ісаакавіч Мандэльштам; rus, Леонид Исаакович Мандельштам, p=lʲɪɐˈnʲit ɨsɐˈakəvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam, a=Ru-Leonid_Mande ...
*
Walter Rotman Walter Rotman (August 24, 1922 – May 19, 2007) was an American scientist known for his work in radar and antenna design. Among his inventions were the Rotman lens, the sandwich wire antenna, and the trough waveguide.
Biography
Walter Rotman was ...
*
Sergei Schelkunoff
Sergei Alexander Schelkunoff (russian: Сергей Александрович Щелкунов; January 27, 1897 – May 2, 1992), who published as S. A. Schelkunoff, was a distinguished mathematician, engineer and electromagnetism theorist who ...
*
Arthur Schuster
Sir Franz Arthur Friedrich Schuster (12 September 1851 – 14 October 1934) was a German-born British physicist known for his work in spectroscopy, electrochemistry, optics, X-radiography and the application of harmonic analysis to physics. S ...