Akhlesh Lakhtakia
Akhlesh Lakhtakia obtained a B.Tech. in Electronics Engineering from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1979; M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Utah in 1981 and 1983, respectively; and D.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from BHU in 2006. In 1983, he joined Pennsylvania State University, where he is now Evan Pugh University Professor and Charles Godfrey Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics.
He was the founding Editor-in-Chief (2006–2013) of SPIE's Journal of Nanophotonics. He was twice a Visiting Professor of Physics at Universidad de Buenos Aires, a Visiting Professor of Physics at University of Otago, a Visiting Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, a Visiting Fellow in Mathematics at University of Glasgow, VAJRA Professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-BHU), and Otto Mønsted Visiting Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Danish Technical University. He serves as an international lecturer for International Commission for Optics, SPIE, and Optical Society of America (OSA), and is Honorary International Professor at National Taipei University of Technology.
His current research interests lie in the electromagnetics of complex materials including chiral and bianisotropic materials, sculptured thin films, chiral nanotubes, nanoengineered metamaterials, surface multiplasmonics, thin-film solar cells, engineered biomimicry, biologically inspired design, and forensic science.
He has been elected a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, Institute of Physics, American Association for Advancement of Sciences, American Physical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Royal Society of Arts. He has received the Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal in Engineering, the SPIE Technical Achievement Award, and Sigma Xi’s Walston Chubb Award for Innovation. Nanotech Briefs recognized him in 2006 with a Nano 50 Award for Innovation. The University of Utah and IIT-BHU made him a Distinguished Alumnus. In 2019, he was one of two scientists named by IIT-BHU as an Alumnus of the Century in Making.
He received the SPIE Smart Structures and Materials Lifetime Achievement Award, the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Achievement Award, and the Radio Club of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
The US National Academies named him a Jefferson Science Fellow for 2022-23, and Sigma Xi named him a Distinguished Lecturer for 2022-24. He is currently serving as the Chair of the U.S.-India Higher Education Partnerships Committee constituted by the governments of the two countries.