Sir John Pendry, fellow of the Royal Society, member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and professor at Imperial College London, was appointed Honorary Professor of Tsinghua University on August 5, 2026. On this occasion, he delivered the 274th Tsinghua Global Vision Lecture.
Wang Hongwei confers the appointment certificate of Honorary Professor upon Sir John Pendry
The appointment ceremony and lecture were attended by Wang Hongwei, vice president of Tsinghua University, who presented the honorary professorship certificate to Sir Pendry. The ceremony was presided over by Professor Lin Yuanhua, dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Also in attendance were Academicians Nan Cewen, Zhou Ji, and Sun Hongbo, along with leaders from the School of Materials Science and Engineering and the Office of International Affairs, as well as over 150 faculty members and students.
In his remarks, Vice President Wang Hongwei announced the appointment and expressed his hope that Sir Pendry would share his academic insights with the Tsinghua community and deepen collaborative research and talent development in cutting-edge fields such as optical metamaterials and space-time crystals. Professor Peng Huaxin, Qiushi Chair Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University and secretary-general of the Chinese Society for Metamaterials, extended his congratulations on behalf of sister institutions and offered his perspective on the internationalization of China's metamaterials research. Professor Zhou Ji, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, introduced Sir Pendry's distinguished academic achievements.
Sir Pendry is a world-leading scientist in condensed matter physics. As the founding father of metamaterials and the originator of transformation optics, his work has had a profound impact on the development of electromagnetics, optics, and materials science. He has received numerous prestigious international awards, including the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, the Kyoto Prize, and the Copley Medal.
In his lecture titled "Metamaterials: From Negative Refraction and Cloaking to Space-Time Crystals," Sir Pendry reviewed the origins and evolution of metamaterials, tracing the journey from theoretical predictions to experimental verification of negative refraction, and the subsequent development of cloaking technologies and super lenses. He then focused on the emerging frontier of space-time crystals. By engineering materials along both temporal and spatial dimensions, space-time crystals break time-reversal symmetry, opening up new avenues for novel device design. Theoretical physicists have shown great interest in this concept, as it may offer a pathway to realizing Hawking radiation in laboratory experiments. Looking ahead, Sir Pendry highlighted the unique potential of metamaterials in a wide range of applications that require precise control of electromagnetic waves, including 5G/6G technologies, satellite communications, transformation optics cloaks, bio-imaging and sensing, and high-performance NMR devices.
Following the lecture, faculty and students engaged in lively discussions with Sir Pendry on topics including superlens fabrication and applications, the principles behind cloaking technology, and how positive and negative refraction are understood from the perspective of transformation optics. Vice President Wang Hongwei presented Sir Pendry with a commemorative plaque from the Global Vision Lecture series, and Professor Yang Zhigang, party secretary of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, presented him with a souvenir. The event concluded with a group photo of distinguished guests.
This event was co-hosted by the Office of International Affairs and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Since its launch in 2007, the Tsinghua Global Vision Lecture series has successfully held 274 lectures, establishing itself as an important platform for broadening the international horizons of faculty and students and deepening high-level academic collaboration.
Editors: Li Han, John Paul Grima
