Narrative Biography
Andrea Alų is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Fields and Waves Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A., in the group of Prof. Nader Engheta. He was born in Roma, Italy, on September 27, 1978 and received his electronic engineering laurea degree (five year course-work, summa cum laude) from the University of Roma Tre, Roma, Italy, in 2001, his MS degree in environmental engineering and his PhD in biomedical electronics, electromagnetics and telecommunications from the same university in 2003 and 2007, respectively. Since 2002 he has been periodically working at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A., where he has also developed significant parts of his PhD research. In 2006, he was Adjunct Professor of Electromagnetic Field Theory at the University of Roma Tre, and he has regularly lectured in electromagnetics and TLC classes since 2001.
Dr. Alų is the co-author of over 250 scientific contributions published in international books, journals, transactions and peer-reviewed conference proceedings. He regularly serves as a reviewer of the main international journals on physics, electrical engineering and electromagnetics, among which IEEE, IET, OSA, APS Journals and Transactions. He is also co-inventor of the US Patent No. 7218190 on "Waveguides and Scattering Devices Incorporating Epsilon-Negative and/or Mu-Negative Slabs" and of the US Patent Application No. 2006091215 on "Optical Circuits and Circuit Elements and Methods of Forming Same". Some of his scientific contributions have raised worldwide attention on the scientific and news press (see Press section). Moreover, he is currently involved in research projects with companies and institutions concerning antenna design and metamaterial research. He has also been a member of the Organizing Committee and session chairman in international conferences specifically devoted to metamaterials and electromagnetics, and he has been recently invited to lectures and tutorials in international conferences and doctoral schools. His current research interests are in the areas of microwave, THz, infrared and optical applications of complex media, metamaterials and metasurfaces, plasmonics, nano-optics and nano-photonics, metamaterial and plasmonic cloaking, nanocircuits and nanostructures modeling, analysis and synthesis of planar and conformal integrated components and phased antenna arrays, miniaturized antennas and nanoantennas, RF antennas and circuits, and in theoretical and numerical methods for electromagnetics.
In 2008 Dr. Alų has received the Leopold B. Felsen Award for Excellence in Electrodynamics from the University of Siena, Italy, the CST University Publication Award with the paper [A. Alų, N. Engheta, “Cloaking and transparency for collections of particles with metamaterial and plasmonic covers,” Opt. Expr. 15, 7578 (2007)], and the 'Metamaterials' Reviewer Award from the journal Metamaterials for outstanding contribution to the peer-review process. In 2007 he has received the URSI Commission B Young Scientist Award for the paper "Intrinsic Robustness over Variations of the Design Parameters in Metamaterial Cloaking", presented at the International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (Ottawa, Canada, July 26-28, 2007) and the ISAP Young Scientist Travel Grant for the paper “Nanovortices around Resonant Optical Nanoantennas with Higher Directivities”, presented at the International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (Niigata, Japan, August 20-24, 2007). In 2006 he has received the Incubic/Milton Chang Travel Award from Optical Society of America (OSA) for scientific merit; in 2005 he has been awarded of the URSI Young Scientist Award with the paper "Low-Damping Guided Modes along Nano-Transmission Lines with Chains of Quadrupolar Resonant Plasmonic Nano-Particles", presented at the 28th URSI General Assembly (New Delhi, India, October 23-29, 2005); in the same year he received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Travel Grant and he was a finalist in the IEEE AP-S Student Contest Award, with the paper "Sub-Wavelength Focusing and Negative Refraction along Positive-Index and Negative-Index Plasmonic Nano-Transmission Lines and Nano-Layers", presented at the IEEE AP-S International Symposium (Washington, DC, July 3-8, 2005); he also received in 2005 a European School of Antennas Study Grant; in 2004 Dr. Alų received the SUMMA Graduate Fellowship in Advanced Electromagnetics, “to promote exceptionally creative contributions to the advancement of electromagnetic theory and applications”, with the project proposal “Complex Materials with Double-Negative and Single-Negative Parameters and Their Electromagnetic Applications”. In the same year, he has been again the recipient of the URSI Commission B Young Scientist Award, with the paper "Tunneling and ‘Growing Exponential Envelopes’ in a Pair of Cascaded Sets of Frequency Selective Surfaces in their Band Gaps", presented at the International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (Pisa, Italy, May 23-27, 2004). In 2004 he has also received the Raj Mittra Travel Grant Young Researcher Award and he has been among the finalists of the IEEE AP-S Student Paper Contest Award, with the paper “Metamaterial Bilayers for Enhancement of Wave Transmission through a Small Hole in a Flat Perfectly Conducting Screen”, presented at the IEEE AP-S International Symposium (Moterey, CA, June 20-26, 2004). In 2003 he has been awarded of the second prize at the IEEE AP-S Student Paper Contest, with the paper "Mode Excitation by a Line Source in a Parallel-Plate Waveguide Filled with a Pair of Parallel Double-Negative and Double-Positive Slabs", presented at the IEEE AP-S International Symposium (Columbus, OH, June 22-27, 2003); in 2002 he has been the recipient of the Scipione Bobbio award presented by Fondazione IDIS – Cittā della Scienza "for the best Italian thesis dissertation on electrodynamics"; in 2001 he has received the Premio Galluzzi award presented by EniTecnoloige, the National Institute for the Physics of Matter (INFM) and the University of Roma Tre "as the best Italian graduate student in Engineering", and the Isabella Sassi Bonadonna Scholarship, presented by the Italian Electrical Association (AEIT) "for the best year-long research project proposal on electrical engineering to be developed abroad".
Andrea Alų is currently a member of IEEE, IEEE AP-S, OSA and AAAS.