Oklahoma State University’s Zhang named Fellow of The Optical Society
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Dr. Weili Zhang, a professor in the School of Electrical Engineering at Oklahoma State University, has been elected to the newest class of OSA Fellow members as part of The Optical Society (OSA). He was selected for his outstanding contributions to terahertz subwavelength photonics, including plasmonics, metamaterials and invisibility cloaking, and their advancement.
“The election to Fellow to a professional society is one of the highest distinctions an engineer can receive,” said Dean of College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, Paul Tikalsky. “It is the recognition of international peers of your contributions to the world. Only a select few of our faculty hold such distinctions. This is a proud day for Professor Zhang and OSU.”
OSA selected 76 members to the newest class of OSA Fellow Members. Fellow membership is prestigious and highly competitive since it is limited to no more than ten percent of the membership and the number elected each year is limited to approximately 0.4 percent of the current membership total, and it is reserved for members who have served with distinction and significant contributions in the advancement of optics and photonics. OSA was founded in 1916 and is the leading professional association in optics and photonics, home to accomplished science engineering, and business leaders from all over the world.
“This year’s class of OSA Fellows has offered prodigious service to OSA and the global optics community,” said OSA president Philip Bucksbaum. “The Optical Society is honored to offer recognition for their outstanding contributions and leadership in the optics and photonics profession.”
Dr. Zhang joined the faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2000, as well as the OSA, after receiving his Ph.D. and teaching at Tianjin University. His research is focused on terahertz optoelectronics, nano- and micro-structured material optics, and semiconductor photonics. He has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, and Advanced Materials and has presented many invited, keynote, and plenary conference talks and institutional colloquia.
“Our early work in terahertz plasmonics and metamaterials has led to a number of effective and subwavelength terahertz devices, such as flexible superlenses, polarizers, wave plates, invisibility cloaks and slow-light filters,” said Dr. Zhang. “Those integrated and mostly flexible devices are essential in developing compact and standoff terahertz systems for devise realistic applications.”
Major activities Dr. Zhang has participated within OSA include prestigious annual conferences, such as Conference on Lasers and Electro-optics (CLEO), serving as subcommittee member and alternate chair, publishing numerous articles in highly impacted OSA journals, such as Optics Letters, Optics Express and Journal of Optical Society of America, serving as topical editor, editorial board member and feature editor for the OSA journal, Chinese Optics Letters.
“It means a lot to me to be a part of the society,” said Dr. Zhang. “OSA is my primary professional society and has extensively helped me in career development through conferencing, publications and interactions with peers within the community.”
Zhang will be formally recognized at a major OSA-sponsored conference, CLEO on May 10-15 in San Jose, California, where he will receive the certificate confirming the recognition and an OSA Fellow lapel pin.
“I would like to thank my colleagues from OSU, Tianjin University in China, University of Birmingham in UK, Northwestern University and UC Berkley, and my students for their contributions and support to my research and career development,” said Zhang.
For more information on the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at OSU, visit http://www.ceat.okstate.edu.