Ames Lab Physicist Wins European Union's Highest Science Prize 9 December 2005

Ames Lab physicist wins European Union's highest science prize 9 December 2005

Costas Soukoulis leads team that will share portion "Our EXEL team was able to demonstrate the of 1 million euro Descartes Prizes experimental reality of LHMs and their consistency Costas Soukoulis, a senior physicist at the U.S. with the laws of physics," said Soukoulis. "This Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and an realization opened up the possibility of Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of unprecedented applications and devices." The physics and astronomy, coordinates the research team has already shown how the ability to focus team that has won the Descartes Prize for radio waves could lead to smaller, better- Excellence in Scientific Collaborative Research, performing magnetic resonance imaging machines the European Union's highest honor in the field of for medical and biomedical diagnostics. Numerous science. He and his collaborators received the applications in the cellular communications industry prestigious award for creating a novel class of are also envisioned, including antennas and artificial metamaterials called left-handed waveguides that are 100 times smaller and much materials, or LHMs, which exhibit fascinating lighter than those of today. Even slight properties that cannot be found in naturally improvements to these types of devices can make occurring materials. a significant financial impact.

LHMs exhibit negative refraction, bending light in Ames Laboratory Director Tom Barton praised the the opposite direction to that seen in natural work of Soukoulis and the EXEL team, saying, "It materials. They can be fabricated to have zero probably would be difficult to overstate the potential reflectance for all angles hit by incoming importance of this historic scientific achievement to electromagnetic waves. In addition, they can focus the future of optical technology. The Ames Lab and light without the need for curved surfaces. These Iowa State University are indeed proud of the and other amazing properties promise a wide pivotal role played by Professor Soukoulis." range of potential applications for LHMs. Accepting the Descartes Prize, Soukoulis paid Soukoulis, who has also been an associate with tribute to the organizations that have supported his the research center FORTH, in Crete, Greece, research on LHMs. "I would like to express my since 1984, said he was lucky to work with a top- gratitude to Ames Laboratory and Iowa State notch team of international researchers in creating University for accommodating my teaching duties to the new subclass of materials. The team includes allow me to also pursue research on left-handed Professor Sir John Pendry, Imperial College, UK; materials in Europe," he said. "I would like to thank Professor Ekmel Ozbay, Bilkent University, Turkey; the U.S. Department of Energy for their support Professor Martin Wegener, University of Karlsruhe, during the last 20 years. Our Ames Laboratory work Germany; Professor David Smith, Duke University, on photonic crystals led to the field of negative USA; and Professor E. N. Economou and Dr. index materials and metamaterials." Maria Kafesaki, both from FORTH and the University of Crete. The research team was The Descartes Prize for Excellence in Scientific awarded the Descartes Prize for Research in Research, now in its sixth year, recognizes Physics at a ceremony held at the Royal Society in outstanding scientific and technological results London on Dec. 2. Of the 1,000,000 euro achieved through international collaborative Descartes Prize money, the team members will research in diverse disciplines. Winners are share 200,000 euro ($235, 634) given for their selected by a grand jury of experts in science, winning project, "Extending Electromagnetism industry and the general public. through Novel Artificial Materials, or "EXEL."

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Source: Ames Laboratory

APA citation: Ames Lab physicist wins European Union's highest science prize (2005, December 9) retrieved 28 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2005-12-ames-lab-physicist-european- union.html

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