Xiang Zhang, the Ernest S. Kuh Chaired Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the director of the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (SINAM), has been selected for the Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience. He will give a presentation at the 2011 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting on Monday, April 25, 7:00 pm at the San Francisco Marriott marquis. The title of his presentation is “Metamaterials—Creating properties that do not exist in nature.”

Recent theory predicted a new class of photonic composite materials whose properties, derived by structure rather than chemical compositions, promise unprecedented electromagnetic properties that do not exist in nature, such as optical magnetism and negative refraction. Zhang will describe recent progress that demonstrated the physics. He will also discuss an array of new technologies, including a superlens for nanoscale lithography that could transform the next generation of nanomanufacturing and plasmon lasers that could act as sources of coherent light on the molecular scale.

Zhang received his PhD degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996 and was on the faculties of the Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) prior to joining the Berkeley faculty in 2004. Zhang was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2010. He has over 180 publications. His group’s research in optical metamaterials was included in Time Magazine’s Top 10 Scientific Discoveries in 2008.