Amir Alavi was named editor-in-chief of a new Nature Portfolio journal

Amir Alavi, associate professor and B.P. America Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering, has been appointed editor-in-chief of npj Metamaterials, a new Nature Portfolio journal.

Nature’s npj series is a group of discipline-specific journals led by experts in the field. The npj Metamaterials editorial board includes Sir John Pendry from Imperial College London and Federico Capasso from Harvard, both regarded as pioneers in the discipline. It also features leading scholars such as Katia Bertoldi from Harvard University, Julia Greer from the California Institute of Technology and Nikolay Zheludev from the University of Southampton, along with many other distinguished experts.

“We are privileged to have some of the most exceptional talents in the field of metamaterials on our editorial team. I believe this journal has significant potential for growth and will become an excellent platform for high-quality research in this area,” Alavi said.

In his lab, Alavi’s primary focus is on exploring novel engineered material systems. He and his team are dedicated to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the mechanics and electronics of these material systems across multiple scales. His vision is to take metamaterials to the next level through the deep integration of multifunctionality, sensing, electrical actuation, communication and information processing as well as leveraging data-driven designs.

In 2023, he led a perspective paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, with colleagues from University of California, Berkeley; University of Pennsylvania; Johns Hopkins University and Zhejiang University. In Mechanical Metamaterials and Beyond, the group provided a road map for the design and discovery of next-generation active and responsive mechanical metamaterials.

He has since been working on developing such materials; in January of this year, Alavi published a paper in Materials Today that outlined a paradigm for creating intelligent metamaterial implants that can wirelessly transmit self-generated electrical signals without relying on integrated electronics or external power sources. This concept has the potential to reshape the field of intelligent implants by eliminating bulky wireless interrogation circuits while offering unparalleled mechanical tunability through the properties of metamaterials.

Alavi’s research and innovation have led to multiple accolades. He is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards, including an NSF CAREER Award, NIH Trailblazer Award and ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering Award.