Andrea Alu, Assistant Professor - Homepage at UT Austin, ECE

Andrea Alù

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Texas at Austin
Phone: +1 (512) 471.5922; Fax: +1 (512) 471.6598
E-mail: alu at mail . utexas . edu
Web: http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~aalu (this website)

Education

Ph.D.: University of Roma Tre (Italy), Engineering of Biomedical Electronics, Electromagnetics and Telecommunications, 2007
M.S.: University of Roma Tre (Italy), Environmental Economics and Engineering, 2004
Laurea: University of Roma Tre (Italy), Electronics Engineering, 2001.

Research Interests

Electromagnetism. Acoustics. Metamaterials and plasmonic nanomaterials. Nanoelectromagnetics. Metamaterial and plasmonic cloaking. Nanocircuits and nanostructures modeling at optical frequencies. Mminiaturized RF antennas and nano-antennas. Plasmonics, nano-optics and nano-photonics. Microwave, THz, infrared and optical applications of complex media, metamaterials and metasurfaces. Optical properties, biological and biomedical applications of plasmonic nanoparticles. Photonics and materials science. Metal-dielectric nanocomposites and thin metal films. Electromagnetic and photonic crystals. RF antennas and circuits. Analysis and synthesis of planar and conformal integrated components and phased antenna arrays. Theoretical and numerical methods for electromagnetics.

Professional Career

2009-now: Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
2009-now: Assistant Professor, Applied Research Laboratories, UT Austin
2008-now: Consultant, Eureka Aerospace
2007-2008: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania
2006: Adjunct Professor of Electromagnetic Field Theory, University of Roma Tre
2003-2006: PhD Student, University of Roma Tre
2002-2006: Visiting Graduate Student, University of Pennsylvania

Professional Honors and Scientific Awards

2008: CST University Publication Award 2008
2008: 'Metamaterials' Reviewer Award 2008
2008: Leopold B. Felsen Award for Excellence in Electrodynamics
2007: URSI Commission B Young Scientist Award
2007: ISAP Young Scientist Travel Grant
2006: Incubic/Milton Chang Travel Award from Optical Society of America (OSA)
2005: URSI General Assembly Young Scientist Award
2005: IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Travel Grant
2005: Finalist at the IEEE AP-S Student Contest Award
2005: European School of Antennas Study Grant
2004: SUMMA Graduate Fellowship in Advanced Electromagnetics
2004: Finalist at the IEEE AP-S Student Contest Award
2004: Raj Mittra Travel Grant (RMTG) Junior Researcher Award
2004: URSI Commission B Young Scientist Award
2003: Second prize at the IEEE AP-S Student Contest Award
2002: Scipione Bobbio Award (best Laurea (MS) dissertation in electrodynamics in the whole Italy)
2001: Isabella Sassi Bonadonna Award
2001: Galluzzi for Engineering Award (best graduate in engineering all over Italy)

Student Awards

2009: M. D. Guild, Best Student Paper Award, Auxetics 2009, Bolton, U.K.

Grant Support

'09-10-: Tunable Metamaterials, Aegis Technology
'09-10-: Metamaterial Chains, Air Force Research Laboratories at Hanscom
'09: Novel Tunable Metamaterials, Center for Nanopahse Materials
'09: Efficient Small Antennas, Eureka Aerospace
'09: Electromagnetic Cloaking, Applied Research Laboratories
'09: Acoustic Cloaking, Applied Research Laboratories
'09: Faculty Travel Grant, UT Austin
'05: SUMMA Graduate Fellowship in Advanced Electromagnetics, SUMMA Foundat.
'02: Isabella Sassi Bonadonna Scholarship, AEI

Professional Services

2010: Steering Committee Member at Metamaterials'2010, Karlsruhe, Germany.
2010: Chairman and organizer of the special session on Metamaterial and Plasmonic Antennas at the 4th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Barcelona, Spain.
2010: Technical Program Committee Member for 9th EEEIC International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering, Prague, Czech Republic.
2010: Technical Program Committee Member for IEEE 71st Vehicular Technology Conference, Taipei, Taiwan.
2010: Technical Program Committee Member at 13th IEEE International Multitopic Conference, Islamabad, Pakistan.
2009: Technical Program Committee Member; Session Organizer and Chairman of 2 Special Sessions (Cloaking and Extreme Metamaterials) for Metamaterials 2009, London, UK.
2009: Examiner of the doctoral thesis: P. Alitalo, “Microwave transmission-line networks for backward-wave media and reduction of scattering,” Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Helsinki, Finland.
2009: Chairman of the session Cloaking, Tunneling and Transformation EM at the IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Charleston, SC, U.S.A.
2009: Chairman of the session Photonic Crystals at Days on Diffraction, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2009: Technical Program Committee Member for IEEE 70th Vehicular Technology Conference, Anchorage, AK, U.S.A..
2009: Technical Program Committee Member for the 2009 IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT 2009), Santa Monica, CA.
2008: Chairman of the session Cloaking at Metamaterials’2008, Pamplona, Spain.
2007: Chairman of the poster session at Metamaterials’2007, Roma, Italy.
2007: Chairman of the session Complex Media at the USNC/CNC/URSI North American Radio Science Meeting, Ottawa, Canada.
2006: Organizing committee member for the 3rd Workshop on Metamaterials and Special Materials for Electromagnetic Applications and TLC, Roma, Italy.

Patents

Cloaked Sensor, US Patent Provisional Application No. 200961/164,610
Optical Circuits and Circuit Elements and Methods of Forming Same, US Patent Application No. 20080212920
Waveguides and Scattering Devices Incorporating Epsilon-Negative and/or Mu-Negative Slabs, US Patent No. 7218190

Associate Editor

• 2009-now: IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

Active Peer Reviewer

• Science Magazine
• Physical Review Letters
• Physical Review A
• Physical Review B
• Physical Review E
• Materials Today
• Applied Physics Letters
• Journal of Applied Physics
• Journal of the Optical Society of America B
• Optics Express
• Optics Communications
• Optics Letters
• Applied Optics
• IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
• IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
• IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology
• IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
• IEEE OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology
• IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine
• IET Electronics Letters
• IET Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation
• New Journal of Physics
• Laser and Photonics Reviews
• Applied Physics B
• Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics
• Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
• Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications
• Progress in Electromagnetics Research (PIER) Book
• International Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves
• Journal of Nanophotonics
• Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids
• Optical Materials
• Journal of Electrostatics
• European Physical Journal B
• Radio Science
• Metamaterials Journal
• Research Letters in Electronics
• Electromagnetics
• Journal of Nanotechnology
• Journal of Engineering Mathematics
• International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering
• Radio Engineering
• International Conferences:
    o 13th IEEE Int. Multitopic Conference, Islamabad, Pakistan, Dec. 14-15, 2009
    o IEEE 70th Conf. Vehicular Technology, Anchorage, AK, Sept. 20-23, 2009
    o Metamaterials 2009, London, UK, Sept. 1-4, 2009
    o iWAT 2009, Santa Monica, CA, March 2-4, 2009
    o Metamaterials 2008, Pamplona, Spain, Sept. 23-26, 2008
    o URSI General Assembly 2008, Chicago, IL, August 8-16, 2008
    o USNC URSI Student Paper Competition 2008, Boulder, CO, January 3-6, 2008

Memberships

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (since 2003)
• IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (since 2003)
• IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (since 2003)
• IEEE Communications Society (since 2003)
• Optical Society of America (since 2007)
• American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 2007)
• Italian Society of Electromagnetics (since 2003)

Publications Summary

3 thesis dissertations, 11 book chapters, 93 peer-reviewed journal papers, 185 peer-reviewed conference paper proceedings and abstracts, 10 invited lectures. Co-inventor of 3 patents.