Nikolay Zheludev is one of the founding members of the closely interlinked fields of metamaterials and nanophotonics that emerged at the dawn of the 21st century on the crossroads of optics and nanotechnology.

Nikolay’s work has had a considerable impact on developing new concepts in which precise nanoscale structuring of matter enhance and radically change its optical properties. These properties can then be controlled by external stimuli, or by light itself, through the deployment of nanoscale forces to give access to optical functionalities hitherto unavailable. He has used nanostructured matter to create electromagnetic environments that allow observation and study of several new fundamental phenomena of light-matter interaction and light generation processes that are difficult or impossible to observe in natural media. This greatly enhances the toolkit of photonics, offering numerous applications ranging from optical information processing to imaging. 

Nikolay received his degrees from Moscow State University, moving to Southampton University in 1991, and since 2012 also holding a joint appointment at NTU Singapore. He is a foreign member of the United States of America National Academy of Engineering (2019) and was awarded the Thomas Young medal for “global leadership and pioneering, seminal work in optical metamaterials and nanophotonics