Roberto Merlin, well-known condensed matter and optics physicist, will be on the West Virginia University campus Monday (April 13) as he presents the 2015 Bernard Cooper lecture.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3:30 p.m. in White Hall, room G09 on the Downtown Campus. A pre-lecture reception is scheduled for 3 p.m. in 111 White Hall.

Merlin’s talk, “From Negative Refraction and Superfocusing, to Wireless Power Transfer: The Path of the Superlens,” will:

• examine the late 1800s to the turn of the 20th century, when the field of near-field optics experienced a tremendous growth;

• explore how 19th century physicist Ernst Abbe’s research results are related to theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and how the diffraction limit can be bypassed without violating any physical law;

• and introduce the concept of near-field plates.

The Cooper Lecture is the highlight of the Department of Physics and Astronomy calendar as world-renowned scientists come to WVU and showcase important exciting developments in their fields.

Merlin is the Peter A. Franken Professor of Physics and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. Merlin’s research specialties are condensed matter and optical physics. Experimentally, his areas of expertise include various optical techniques and, in particular, spontaneous and impulsive (ultrafast) Raman spectroscopy.

He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the von Humboldt Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Simons Foundation.

He received the Licenciado en Ciencias Fisicas (M.S.) degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Dr. rer. nat. (Ph.D.) degree from the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

For more information, please contact Viola Bryant at 304-293-9496, or by email at vmbryant@mail.wvu.edu

-WVU-

dc/04/10/2015

CONTACT: Devon Copeland, Director of Marketing and Communication, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, 304-293-6867, Devon.Copeland@mail.wvu.edu

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