Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to exhibit unique properties not found in nature, enabling unprecedented control over waves in electromagnetism, acoustics, and mechanics. Researchers working on metamaterials come from diverse backgrounds, including engineering, physics, applied mathematics, and materials science.
Kick-off
On the first day Mario Silverinha (Portugal) gave a plenary presentation. He presented theoretical research on tailoring spinning electromagnetic fields in novel ways. Participants then split into parallel sessions covering topics such as:
- New materials for optical computing
- Manipulation of thermal radiation for energy-efficient devices and solar cells
- Advances in antenna design for steering radio waves, and more….
Metamaterials at center stage
General conference chair Femius Koenderink was particularly inspired by ideas on how to address urgent societal challenges. For example, Itai Cohen from Cornell University shared his vision for small, fully autonomous soft robots that can move, communicate, and respond, offering potential applications in areas such as personalized medicine.
A special session on Metamaterials and Information, organized by Nader Engheta and Romain Fleury, showcased groundbreaking ideas on using metamaterials to compute with waves, such as light and sound. This approach directly addresses the enormous and growing costs of information processing in AI: an issue being tackled in the Netherlands, among others, through the NL-ECO consortium.
Metamaterials also promise to impact sustainable energy through better light management in photovoltaics, incandescence, and photocatalytic chemistry (special session organized by Esther Alarcón Lladó and Albert Polman).
2026
Next year Metamaterials will be held in New York. More information will be posted on the metamaterials website
Credits
All photos: Liesbeth Dingemans
