2010 Paterson medal and prize

Professor Stefan Maier

Imperial College London

For his important contributions to the fields of plasmonics and plasmonic metamaterials..

Stefan Maier is a leading international figure in plasmonics and plasmonic metamaterials, with particular interest in high-confinement waveguiding in various regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. His recent monograph on plasmonics was included in a list of the top twenty bestselling physics books for 2007.  His important scientific contributions include the first demonstration of plasmon waveguiding below the diffraction limit in chains of metallic nanoparticles. This research has contributed significantly to the surge in research in plasmonics and has inspired many researchers to join this field.

In 2006-2008, the work focusing on high confinement plasmon waveguiding in the THz regime of the spectrum, which included a direct measurement of surface modes akin to the spoof surface plasmons predicted by Pendry in Science in 2004, received equally wide attention and has resulted in many invitations to speak at all major international conferences of the field. During this time, Stefan Maier also wrote one of the first modern introductions into plasmonics. The resulting monograph was very well received within the community. In addition to his University duties, Stefan is also a frequent science communicator, particularly via regular science news articles in the German edition of Scientific American.