Costas M. Soukoulis (Greek: Κώστας Μ. Σούκουλης; 15 January 1951 – 14 March 2024) was a Greek physicist, who was a senior scientist in the Ames Laboratory and a Distinguished Professor of Physics Emeritus at Iowa State University. He received his B.Sc. from University of Athens in 1974. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1978, under the supervision of Kathryn Liebermann Levin. From 1978 to 1981 he was at the Physics Department at University of Virginia. He spent three years (1981–1984) at Exxon Research and Engineering Co. and from 1984 was at Iowa State University (ISU) and Ames Laboratory. He was part-time Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Technology of the University of Crete (2001–2011) and an associated member of IESL-FORTH at Heraklion, Crete, Greece, since 1984. He died on 14 March 2024, at the age of 73.[1]
Costas M. Soukoulis | |
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Κώστας Μ. Σούκουλης | |
Born | |
Died | 14 March 2024 Ames, Iowa, U.S. | (aged 73)
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics, materials science |
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Doctoral advisor | Kathryn Liebermann Levin |
Soukoulis and his collaborators at Ames Lab/ISU in 1990 and 1994, suggested photonic crystal designs (lattice diamond[2][3] and the woodpile structure,[4] respectively), which gave the largest omnidirectional photonic band gaps. Many experimental groups all over the world still use his woodpile structure to fabricate photonic crystals at optical wavelengths, enhance the spontaneous emission and produce nanolasers with low threshold limit. Soukoulis and Wegener demonstrate magnetic responses[5] and negative index of refraction at optical frequencies [6] in metamaterials, which do not exist in natural materials. His other researches includes light and Anderson localization, random lasers, graphene and plasmonics.