UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), a professional society based in the United Kingdom with over 50,000 members worldwide.
Lakhtakia’s admittance was based on his extensive and fundamental contributions to the optical response characteristics of isotropic chiral materials and to homogenization formalisms for composite materials and metamaterials.
His current research interests lie in the electromagnetics of complex materials including chiral and bianisotropic materials and metamaterials, sculptured thin films, mimumes, carbon nanotubes, solar cells, surface multiplasmonics, engineered biomimicry, bone nano-refacing and forensic science.
Since joining Penn State in 1983, Lakhtakia has been honored for his teaching and research with a 1996 Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) Outstanding Research Award, a 2005 Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Award for Nanotechnology, a 2006 Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal, a 2008 PSEAS Premier Research Award, the 2010 International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) Technical Achievement Award, a 2016 PSEAS Outstanding Teaching Award and the 2016 Sigma Xi Walston Chubb Award for Innovation.
He is also a fellow of the Optical Society of America, SPIE, the Institute of Physics (United Kingdom), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Founded in 1841, RSC is the largest organization in Europe for chemical scientists and advancing the chemical sciences. RSC partners with industry and academia, advises governments on policy, and promotes the collaboration, innovation, talent, information and ideas that lead to great advances in science. The designation Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) is given to elected fellows who have made significant contributions to the chemical sciences.