Willie Padilla Named a Fellow of IEEE

Willie Padilla, the Dr. Paul Wang Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), has been named a fellow by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), one of the highest recognitions for academic engineers.

The distinction recognizes Padilla for his contributions to the field of metamaterials, including perfect absorbers and active devices.

Fellow is the highest grade of membership within the professional organization, and individuals are elevated based on outstanding records of accomplishments in an IEEE field. The designation is recognized as both a benchmark in a research career and a prestigious honor.

Padilla’s lab specializes in the THz, infrared, optical and magneto-optic properties of novel materials using various spectroscopic methods, including Fourier transform spectroscopy and ellipsometry. His recent research interests include tailoring the emissivity of objects with metamaterial coatings and the use of active metamaterial arrays as components in THz and infrared imaging systems.

Padilla’s lab also works on designing metamaterials with the help of artificial intelligence. Examples include a “neural-adjoint method” that sets boundaries within machine learning that can solve difficult design problems, or incorporating known physics into machine learning algorithms to reveal insights into the properties of metamaterials.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields.