The Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science: Designer Matter - Fascinating Interactions of Light and Sound with Metamaterials

Dec 1, 2016 8:45am ‐ Dec 1, 2016 9:30am

Identification: GS10

Metamaterials are artificial materials with emerging physical properties that go well beyond their constituents and what is offered by nature, providing unprecedented opportunities to tailor and enhance the interaction between waves and matter. In this talk, Andrea Alù discusses his group's recent research activity in electromagnetics, nano-optics, acoustics and mechanics, showing how suitably tailored meta-atoms and their arrangements open exciting venues to manipulate and control waves in unprecedented ways. He  discusses our most recent theoretical and experimental results, including metamaterials for scattering suppression, nanostructures and metasurfaces to control wave propagation and radiation, large nonreciprocity without magnetism, giant nonlinearities in properly tailored metasurfaces, and parity-time symmetric meta-atoms and metasurfaces. Physical insights into the exotic phenomena behind the metamaterial response, new devices based on these concepts, and their impact on technology are discussed during the talk.

Scientific Writing for Academia and Industry: Academic Resumes, Cover Letters and CV Writing

Dec 1, 2016 10:15am ‐ Dec 1, 2016 11:00am

Identification: GS-SWAI-4

One of the most important steps in preparation for your job search is creating an effective, powerful cover letter, resume and/or curriculum vitae. Recruiters have a system for scanning these important documents and look for key indicators that specify your leadership skills, and evaluate whether you will be a good fit for a particular position. These important documents are a marketing piece for you, the job candidate, and will provide recruiters with valuable information about what you can bring to their organization. This workshop will help you to understand the steps involved in creating an effective document that best describes your value as a future employee.

"A Holistic View of Nucleation and Self-assembly" - the 2016 MRS David Turnbull Lectureship Award Talk

Dec 1, 2016 11:00am ‐ Dec 1, 2016 11:40am

Nucleation is the seminal process in the formation of ordered structures ranging from simple inorganic crystals to macromolecular matrices. Observations over the past 15 years have revealed a rich set of hierarchical nucleation pathways involving higher-order species ranging from multi-ion clusters to dense liquid droplets, as well as transient crystalline or amorphous phases. Despite this complexity, a holistic framework for understanding these hierarchical pathways that is rooted in classical concepts emerges when the coupled effects of perturbations in free energy landscapes and the impact of dynamical factors are considered. Here I describe that framework and use a series of in situ TEM and AFM studies on inorganic, organic, and macromolecular systems to illustrate the evolution in nucleation processes as these perturbations and dynamical factors come into play. The results provide a common basis for understanding the development of order in systems as diverse as simple salt crystals and microbial membranes.