Two physicists from the Research School of Physics (RSPhys) have received major recognition from the Australian Academy of Science.

Distinguished Professor Yuri Kivshar (Materials Physics) has been honoured with the Flinders Medal and Lecture, and Dr Daria Smirnova (Electronic Materials Engineering) has received the Pawsey Medal.

The Director of RSPhys, Professor Tim Senden, congratulated the recipients, calling them inspirational and visionary.

“They are amazing individuals. I’m so pleased to see their research leadership and qualities recognised by the Academy,” he said.

The Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture, which is one of the most prestigious career awards of the Academy and recognises scientific researchers of the highest standing.

Professor Kivshar moved to Australia and joined RSPhys in 1993. He pioneered nonlinear optics and metamaterials and established the Nonlinear Physics Centre at ANU, a leading research centre in metamaterials.

He has been a pioneer in optics – with his team he has described whole new classes of materials and devices by combining the properties of nonlinear and structures patterned on a sub-wavelength scale.

He is globally recognised for introducing the field of metaphotonics using artificial materials with novel properties and applications, and is one of the founders of all-dielectric resonant metaphotonics that derives unique functionalities from electric and magnetic Mie resonances.

His work has led to the development of innovative photonic devices, such as chiral nanolasers, employed in a new generation of optical communication systems, biomedical sensing, and defence and security applications.

He has trained a remarkable number of students and early-career researchers, with many of them now in leading positions in industry and academia worldwide.

A third-time recipient of an Australian Academy honorific award, Kivshar says he’s still honoured to be recognised to the level of the Matthew Flinders Medal.

“This award is a very important achievement for me,” he says. “When I came to Australia more than 30 years ago, I did not expect that I would achieve something like this.”

Dr Smirnova’s research is at the nexus of fundamental physics of topological photonic phases and nanoscale material design, with a view to developing nanodevices capable of high-speed and low-loss signal processing with light. 

Her approaches are rooted in engineering topological photonic states and their coupling with matter in judiciously structured materials at subwavelength scales.

Such topological channels could serve as superhighways for photons and hybrid quasiparticles in nanophotonic circuits. These superhighways could enable better encoding of  information, for next-generation communication networks, and quantum state engineering with topology-improved reliability and compactness.

Dr Smirnova has put forward new methods to probe and generate topological photonic states using radiative properties and optical nonlinearities in patterned photonic materials. In particular she has pioneered ultrathin nanostructured metasurfaces, whose topological photonics architectures manipulate light-matter waves in unusual ways.

These architectures can be employed to prototype functional modules for high-performance computing, data protection, low-threshold nanolasers and lab-on-chip instruments that could be integrated into microchips of everyday devices.

Being recognised with the Pawsey Medal has a special meaning for Dr Smirnova.

“I think almost all female scientists face some challenges they have to overcome to be successful,” she says.

“This recognition encourages me to maintain high standards in my work.”