The conference, held on the premises of the Sirius Educational Center, brought together more than 300 researchers in the field of nanophotonics and metamaterials from top research centers and laboratories of the UK, Germany, Sweden, France, the USA, Australia, China, Russia, and other countries. Over the course of five days, researchers presented more than 200 reports and discussed their work and future partnerships.

The conference was organized by the staff of ITMO’s Faculty of Physics and Engineering. This year’s METANANO was also supported by the Mediterranean Institute of Fundamental Physics (MIFP), Metamorphose VI AISBL, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Far Eastern Federal University, and the companies Neaspec and InScience.

320 researchers from some dozen countries participated in the conference. Among them are staff of labs and research centers in Europe, the USA, Australia, and Southeast Asia. This year marked the first time that the event was also attended by students, as the conference coincided with the First Student Conference School on Photonics, Radio Physics and Nanotechnologies, which involved more than 60 students from Russian universities (read more about it in our article)

Along with the other participants, they had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Andre Geim, the laureate of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, where he spoke about the latest developments and future prospects of 2D-heterostructure research (you can read our interview with Prof. Geim here).

Over the five days, METANANO-2018 hosted more than 40 sessions, including nine special ones. Special sessions were organized in collaboration with partners of ITMO’s International Center of Nanophotonics and Metamaterials. This format, say the event’s organizers, allowed them to present a broad range of key areas and relevant research in nanophotonics, metamaterials and other fields.

Among the topics were plasmonics and nanophotonics, bionanophotonics, photonic crystals, non-linear optics, metasurfaces, and many others. A separate session on graphene and two-dimensional materials, organized by the MIPT, was also held, as well as a session on MRI organized by the M-Cube consortium.

“This is my second time coming to METANANO; I’ve also participated in the 2017 event in Vladivostok. Compared to last year, the event has grown in scale. I’ve noticed that the scope of topics has expanded, and there are more scientists from other fields of research, which I think is the right direction to go in,” comments Andrey Fedyanin, professor of the Quantum Electronics Department at Moscow State University.

In addition to science, the conference also had an extensive social program. After seeing the presentations and taking part in the sessions, participants took a bike ride through Sochi’s Olympic Park on the day of ITMO’s traditional bike ride in St. Petersburg. Between the two cities, more than 200 people participated in the event.

Full text read via ITMO.NEWS

Elena Menshikova

Journalist

Vadim Galimov

Translator