The Department of Applied Mathematics is pleased to host this series of colloquium lectures, funded in part by a generous gift from the Boeing Company. This series will bring to campus prominent applied mathematicians from around the world.
Title: Invisibility via Transformation Optics
Abstract: Can we make objects invisible? This has been a subject of human fascination for millennia in Greek mythology, movies, science fiction, etc including the legend of Perseus versus Medusa and the more recent Star Trek and Harry Potter. We will describe in a non-technical fashion a simple and powerful scientific proposal to achieve invisibility, the so-called transformation optics, and the progress that has been made in achieving the goal since it was proposed about 20 years ago.
Youtube: Watch the talk online here