UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).
RSA Fellowship is a global network of 28,000 people who support the RSA's mission to enrich society through ideas and action. RSA Fellows inspire, support and enable new solutions that address the social challenges, such as low educational attainment, social isolation, unemployment and climate change, of the 21st Century.
Lakhtakia’s selection was based on the societal aspects and impacts of his research and his commitment to positive social change through innovative engineering.
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, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Founded in 1754, RSA acts as a global hub, enabling millions of people to access the most creative ideas by nurturing networks of innovators and through researching, testing and sharing practical interventions. Its cutting-edge research, dynamic fellowship, award-winning journal and global ideas platform combine to produce real social change.