Meet the New Staff
Meet the New Staff
We are delighted to see the Centre for Metamaterial Research and Innovation continue expanding to encompass new research areas, new applications and new partners. Such growth requires new members to join the team so we would like to welcome the latest staff members who are helping us push metamaterials forwards to new heights.
Senior Lecturer
Dr Maciej Dąbrowski
Joining from: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Exeter
Maciej's research focusses on pursuing novel functionalities of condensed matter for applications in spintronics, data storage and quantum technologies. His interdisciplinary approach spans magnetism, plasmonics and ultrafast dynamics. Of particular interest is optical control of 2D van der Waals materials with the ultimate goal of building a new generation quantum platform providing energy efficiencies and operational timescales far exceeding what is possible with conventional electronics. He is also developing new experimental methods to directly probe magnetic and optical properties on the nano-femto scale.
Lecturers
Dr Alex Powell
Joining from: RAEng Senior Research Fellow, University of Exeter
Alex's research is focussed on taking electromagnetic metamaterials into the third dimension, both in terms of their design, and fabrication through the use of advanced manufacturing methods. He is currently exploring a variety of complex 2D and 3D structures, both to understand the fundamental physics governing their behaviour, and to apply this understanding to tackle real world problems such as improving antenna directivity, designing tuneable reflectarrays for telecommunications and increasing the radar visibility of small objects such as drones and picosatellites.
Dr Calum Williams
Joining from: Senior Research Associate, University of Cambridge
Calum's research aims to understand & control light-matter interactions in photonic nanostructures, and to build next-generation optical devices that make use of this understanding.
He is specifically interested in unconventional imaging and sensing systems (visible-to-mid-infrared wavebands) enabled through the development of new nanofabrication tools, tunable optical (active) materials, and multifunctional optical metasurfaces. Application areas include biomedical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and remote sensing. Research challenges lying at the interface between disciplines are particularly exciting.
Dr Changxu Liu
Joining from: Assistant Professor, Northumbria University
In most nanotechnology contexts, we design structures with ordered geometries and model how electromagnetic waves interact with these perfect geometries. However, manufacturing devices with nanometre-level tolerance can be expensive and time-consuming. Furthermore, even with state-of-the-art fabrication facilities, imperfections in the manufacturing process are inevitable, leading to a performance degradation from the original design.
In Changxu's research, he is focusing on both sides of the coin: designing optical systems with specific features (topology) that are robust to fabrication errors or, more interestingly, harnessing intrinsic disorder within nanostructures as a benefit for various applications, ranging from energy harvesting, optical sensing to light manipulation.
Dr Gregory Chaplain
Joining from: EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow, Imperial College London
Greg's research is centred on manipulating wave propagation using structured materials and metamaterials, across a variety of wave regimes from electromagnetism to elasticity. He focusses on the theory, simulation and experimental characterisation of novel wave control phenomena and is particularly interested on how these concepts can be used for applications within vibrational energy harvesting and noise control.
Dr Rupam Das
Joining from: Marie Curie Research Fellow, University of Glasgow
Rupam's research is multidisciplinary, at the interface of electronics, physics and biology. His primary focus is on leveraging electromagnetic and electronic tools in the field of implantable, wearable devices and medical imaging.
Metamaterials and metasurfaces are exciting new tools that can solve some of the many issues faced in biomedical engineering such as miniaturization of components and power consumption. Within this area, he is currently working on developing metamaterial-based wireless neuromodulation systems and implantable neural probe for the treatment of brain diseases.