ECE alumnus James Stewart wins best student paper at SPIE conference
James Stewart, who earned his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University in May 2021, recently won the Best Student Paper/ Oral Presentation award at the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE): Defense and Commercial Sensing Conference for his Metamaterials Lens (Metalens) research. The paper explores Purdue’s modeling, fabrication, and characterization of IR Holographic Metalenses as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) EXTREME program.
“I am so blessed to have such a great team at Purdue, all under the tutelage of Professors Alexander Kildishev, Vlad Shalaev, and Alexandra Boltasseva,” said Stewart. “We also had great collaboration with the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and Professor Michael Marciniak.”
At Purdue, Stewart’s advisor was Prof. Alex Kildishev. Stewart’s research involved optical metastructures such as nano coreshell structures and holographic monochromatic focusing lens.
Stewart is Chief Scientist for the Spectrum Warfare Systems Department at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, where he has worked for 17 years. He was recently recognized as a Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) 2021 Modern-Day Technology Leader. Stewart is also Chairman of the NATO Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) task group. He is the first black Department Chief Scientist, as well as the first black Department Chief Engineer at the command.
Souce: NSWC Crane Electronic Warfare Chief Scientist wins best student paper at SPIE conference