Pioneer in the novel metamaterials research
Achievements

Pioneer in the novel metamaterials research

Costas Soukoulis is a distinguished professor of physics at the Iowa State University. Moreover he worked for the Materials Science and Technology Department at the University of Crete (2001-2011) and he is the founder of the Foundation for Research & Technology in Greece. According to a 2014, 2015 and 2016 Thomson Reuters research, Soukoulis ranks among the top scientists in the world, being a major influence upon the development of his discipline.

He was born on January 15th, 1951, in Agios Ioannis, Korinthos.

He received his B.Sc. from the University of Athens and later obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago. From 1978 to 1981 he was at the Physics Department at the University of Virginia. He spent 3 years at Exxon Research and Engineering Co. and since 1984 he has been at Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory.

His research group’s interest focuses on the development of a theoretical understanding of the properties of disordered systems, photonic crystals, metamaterials, left-handed materials, random lasers, graphene, plasmonics, random magnetic systems, nonlinear systems, and amorphous semiconductors. The theoretical models developed are often quite sophisticated to accurately reflect the complexity of real materials. In addition, we are completing experiments on metamaterials, graphene, plasmonics and photonic crystals.

“We try to use the photonic materials in order to change the the radiation of the so called black body to increase the solar efficiency of the solar cells in order to manipulate the light rays and connect optical fibers to microscopic optical structures”, he stated in a former interview.

He has received several awards. In 2002 he received the Senior Humboldt Research Award. In 2005 he was voted Top European Scientist. Moreover, he has received the European Union’s Descartes Prize for the development of artificial metamaterials. In 2013 he received the APS James C. McGroddy Prize for the discovery of metamaterials. In 2014 he received the Max Born Award. In 2015 he received the Rolf Landauer Medal.

He has published over 350 scientific papers.

In charge of the Materials Science and Technology Department at the University of Crete, Costas Soukoulis set to work in cooperation with the outstanding team of the Foundation for Research & Technology. The novel metamaterials constructed according to the calculations of Soukoulis work both as perfect light mirrors and enhancers.

See also:

The Greeks in the list with the world’s most influential scientific minds 2015

31 Greek researchers among the world’s most influential scientific minds

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