Ulf Leonhardt,

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This so ...

(born 9 October 1965 in Bad Schlema,

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

) is a German and British scientist. In 2006, he published the first scientific paper on invisibility cloaking with

metamaterial A metamaterial (from the Greek word μετά ''meta'', meaning "beyond" or "after", and the Latin word ''materia'', meaning "matter" or "material") is any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. ...

s at the same time Pendry's group published their paper in the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

''. He has been involved with the science of

cloaking Cloaking is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the user's browser. This is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the Us ...

objects since then. Biography He is a Wolfson Research Merit Award holder from the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

, and he is currently Professor of Physics at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli univ ...

. He is involved in research pertaining to metamaterials. Specific disciplines are

quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and spec ...

in media, perfect imaging, optical analogues of the

event horizon In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s. In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive compact ob ...

, reverse Casimir effect,

metamaterial cloaking Metamaterial cloaking is the usage of metamaterials in an invisibility cloak. This is accomplished by manipulating the paths traversed by light through a novel optical material. Metamaterials direct and control the propagation and transmission o ...

quantum effects Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

of optical phenomena involving

Hawking radiation Hawking radiation is theoretical black body radiation that is theorized to be released outside a black hole's event horizon because of relativistic quantum effects. It is named after the physicist Stephen Hawking, who developed a theoretical ar ...

and light in moving media.

Career

In 1993, Leonhardt earned his PhD (

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

) from the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established ...

. From 1998 to 2000 he was in Stockholm at the

Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technol ...

as a Göran-Gustafsson Fellow. He held the chair (theoretical physics) at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

in Scotland between April, 2000 and 2012. Since 2012 he has been a Professor of Physics at the

Awards and honors

Professor Ulf Leonhardt is a Fellow of the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

. He is also a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. He is a recipient of the Otto Hahn Award of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...

. In August 2009, the Royal Society's Theo Murphy Blue Skies award allowed Leonhardt to research a new theory for applying metamaterials to optical cloaking full-time.

Books authored

Ulf Leonhardt has authored, coauthored or edited the following books: * 277 pages. *Ulf Leonhardt and Thomas Philbin (2010). Geometry and Light. The Science of Invisibility. Dover Publications, Inc. . 278 pages. * 208 pages
PDF available here

China Experiences

Ulf ventured into China in 2011 to collaborate with researchers and academics. In particular, he participated in "China 1000 Talent" program and the "Guangzhou Leading Overseas Talent" program. Such programs come with both individual cash bonus and research funding. Ulf was hosted by a research center at

South China Normal University South China Normal University (SCNU; ) is a comprehensive university that is part of Double First Class University Plan and Project 211 in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in the People's Republic of China. It is a Chinese state Doubl ...

in Guangzhou, China and in 2012, he was awarded funding for both programs. However, Ulf later realized there were possible foul play with the award money by his China counterparts. He later engaged a lawyer to investigate and Science magazine published an article entitled "Show me the Money?" in October 2014 to reveal more on the insights. Various news media began to cover on this topic to warn foreign researchers and academics to be extra careful with foreign work contracts and in award funds handling and administration. Around half a year later, in a later issue of Science magazine in 2015, Langping He, the Deputy Dean of the Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research (COER) and Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, published a response letter titled ''A Chinese physics institute's defense''. In the response letter, the COER side addressed many allegations in the earlier article.

References

External links

* * Original papers, books, book contributions, reviews and views, and conference proceedings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonhardt, Ulf 1965 births Living people Engineering academics Fellows of the Institute of Physics Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Metamaterials scientists 21st-century German physicists