Professor Stefan Maier awarded the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize - <em>News</em>

By Lucy Goodchild
Thursday 13 May 2010

An Imperial College London physicist was presented with a prestigious prize for his research this week at a ceremony in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Professor Stefan Maier investigates how nano-scale metal structures react with light to produce tight light beams. The aim of this work is to guide light using tiny, sub-micrometre sized light fields, called plasmons, on the surface of the metal. This technology could help scientists to develop new kinds of microchips that work without electricity, and cheaper, more efficient solar cells.

Professor Maier , who is Co- Director of the Centre for Plasmonics and Metamaterials in the Department of Physics, was awarded the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences by Tel Aviv University. He shares the prize, and the $50,000 award, with Professor Mark L. Brongersma of Stanford University.

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize is awarded every two years to researchers under the age of 45, who have made an outstanding contribution to their field.

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Professor Chris Hankin, Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology at Imperial College London, said: “This is a very prestigious prize, which reflects Professor Maier’s pioneering work in the field. The challenge of developing ever smaller and more efficient microchips to cope with our data needs, especially in security science, is one that may be met using this kind of technology. I am looking forward to seeing further developments in plasmonics and photonics at Imperial’s Centre for Plasmonics and Metamaterials.”

In this audio interview, Professor Maier talks about his research, why he is interested in nanoplasmonics, and what’s next in his career.

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