IMS Closing and IMBioC Opening Session

Location: Grand Ballroom, Pennsylvania Convention Center
Date/Time: 14 June 2018, 15:30-17:30

“Extreme Platforms for Extreme Functionality”

Nader Engheta, PhD, H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: Nanoscience, nanotechnology, and materials science and engineering have witnessed significant development in recent years. Platforms with unprecedented “extreme” electromagnetic features can now be constructed, providing ample opportunities for manipulating, tailoring and sculpting waves and fields at various length scales. In electronics controlling and tailoring flow of charged carriers has led to design of many functional devices. In microwaves and photonics, by analogy, we control electromagnetic and optical waves using materials. However, the challenges and opportunities are different in these two fields. Materials are means to shape waves, and as such they can endow electromagnetic waves and photons with desired functionalities. One can now tailor structures much smaller than the wavelengths of visible light, thus enabling game-changing possibilities and paradigm-shifting opportunities for functionalizing fields and waves at the nanoscale, opening doors to innovation and discovery. For example, we have been exploring a series of phenomena related to the wave-matter interaction in platforms with extreme scenarios, such as near-zero-index materials, low-index photonics, optical lumped circuit paradigm (“optical metatronics”) for optical information processing at the nanoscale, specially engineered materials that solve equations as waves go through them, one-atom-thick optical devices, photonic doping, geometry-independent resonant cavities, etc. These “extreme platforms” offer new opportunities for functional devices of future.

In this talk, I will discuss some of these exciting possibilities for “extreme platforms”, and forecast some future directions and opportunities.

About the Speaker: Nader Engheta is the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, with affiliations in the Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Materials Science and Engineering, and Bioengineering. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Tehran, and his M.S and Ph.D. degrees from Caltech. His current research activities span a broad range of areas including nanophotonics, metamaterials, microwaves, graphene optics, imaging and sensing inspired by eyes of animal species, microwave and optical antennas, and physics and engineering of fields and waves. He has received several awards for his research including the 2015 Gold Medal from SPIE, the 2015 Fellow of US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the 2012 IEEE Electromagnetics Award, the 2014 Balthasar van der Pol Gold Medal from the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), the 2015 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship Award from US Department of Defense, the 2015 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Achievement Award, the 2015 Wheatstone Lecture in King’s College London, the 2013 Inaugural SINA Award in Engineering, 2006 Scientific American Magazine 50 Leaders in Science and Technology, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. He is a Fellow of seven international scientific and technical societies, i.e., IEEE, OSA, APS, MRS, SPIE, URSI, and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has received the honorary doctoral degrees from the Aalto University in Finland in 2016 and from the University of Stuttgart, Germany in 2016.

"Renal Denervation for Uncontrolled Hypertension: Complexity After Symplicity"

Dr. Nicholas J. Ruggiero II, MD

Abstract: Dr. Ruggiero’s speech title is “Renal Denervation for Uncontrolled Hypertension: Complexity After Symplicity”. Renal denervation for uncontrolled hypertension demonstrated in many early trials to be extremely successful. These trials accounted for widespread implementation of the procedure in Europe and a change in the ESC management guidelines. The large, randomized, pivotal US trial, Symplicity HTN 3, unfortunately showed no benefit in comparison to optimal medical therapy. These results bridaled enthusiasm for this technology and accounted for many companies to desert the premise altogether. Fortunately, those who believe in the procedure are pressing forward and multiple new trials which are currently enrolling will ultimately determine the future of renal denervation. In the lecture, he will discuss the mechanism of action of renal denervation and early trial data for the Symplicity HTN 3. He will also give insight for new studies and data as well as alternative options besides RF ablation.

About the Speaker: Dr. Nicholas J. Ruggiero II received his MD degree at Jefferson Medical College. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine, and his fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He also completed additional fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital studying interventional coronary and structural cardiology and vascular medicine and interventions while served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School as an instructor in the cardiac catheterization lab.

Dr. Ruggiero was awarded the Gregory P. Braden Memorial award, given to the top graduating interventional cardiology fellow in the country from the Society of Coronary Angiography and Intervention and the CRT Young Leaders Award. He joined Thomas Jefferson University as the director of structural heart disease and non-coronary interventions in 2010.

Since then Dr. Ruggiero develops the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) program, mitraclip program, becomes the director of the Jefferson Heart Institute vascular laboratory and the associate program director of the Cardiology fellowship. He has published over 40 peer reviewed papers, authored numerous book chapters and abstracts, edited multiple textbooks, delivered multiple lectures at national meetings, served on many national and international committees and is on the editorial board of multiple journals.

Dr. Ruggiero becomes associate professor at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at 2016. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology, and interventional cardiology, and a fellow of many medical societies. He is the primary investigator of multiple interventional research trials including Symplicity 3 and is considered a national thought leader in structural heart disease and peripheral vascular interventions.