Sir John delivers a lecture at NUAA. [Photo/en.nuaa.edu.cn]
Renowned British physicist Sir John Pendry, known as the Father of Metamaterials and principal investigator at Imperial College London, visited Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics on July 24 to deliver a lecture on the latest advances in metamaterials and electromagnetic science.
In his lecture, titled Metamaterials, Invisibility & Perfect Lenses: A New World for Electromagnetism, Sir John traced the evolution of metamaterials, explaining how artificially engineered structures can overcome the electromagnetic limitations of natural materials. He highlighted landmark breakthroughs, including negative refraction, perfect lenses and electromagnetic cloaking, which have transformed scientists' ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves.
Looking ahead, Sir John introduced the emerging field of space-time metamaterials and outlined its potential to reshape next-generation technologies. He said the rapidly developing discipline could play a key role in applications ranging from 6G communications and satellite internet to intelligent sensing, electromagnetic stealth, biomedical imaging and integrated photonics.
Despite significant progress, he noted that metamaterials remain a fast-evolving field with enormous potential for both fundamental scientific discovery and future engineering applications.
Following the lecture, Sir John engaged in an in-depth discussion with faculty members and students on frontier topics including metamaterials, transformation optics and space-time electromagnetic manipulation.
Sir John is one of the world's most influential physicists in electromagnetism. He has published more than 500 SCI-indexed papers, with over 140,000 citations on Google Scholar and an h-index exceeding 120. His research has appeared in leading scientific journals, including Science and Nature.
