Swinburne University of Technology has secured $526,081 in new funding to advance cutting-edge metamaterials research, awarded to physicist Dr Weibai Li under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme.
Metamaterials – engineered materials whose properties arise from structure rather than chemical composition – have been the focus of intense global research due to their ability to manipulate waves in ways traditional materials cannot. Dr Li’s project will employ a topology-optimisation framework to automatically discover and design wave metamaterials for improved energy concentration.
The research will create a new computational tool and optimisation algorithms capable of engineering materials with wide-ranging frequency responses. These tunable metamaterials may overcome longstanding limitations in waveguides, sensors and energy-harvesting devices.
Swinburne’s deputy vice-chancellor research, Professor Karen Hapgood, welcomed the ARC’s support.
“It is fantastic to see the ARC recognise and support early-career researchers in delivering high-quality research in a truly cutting edge field that will create transformative impact for our society,” Professor Hapgood said. “We take immense pride in our early career researchers and are thrilled by the ARC’s recognition of Dr Weibai Li.”
The project will go beyond theory, aiming to model, fabricate and characterise next-generation metamaterials capable of advanced wave manipulation. If successful, the work could pave the way for innovations across sensing, energy harvesting, communications and other technology sectors.
Dr Li said the DECRA will allow him to explore new automated approaches to material discovery.
“This DECRA enables me to explore new and more automatic ways of discovering high-performance metamaterials. I hope the outcomes will provide researchers and engineers with new tools for solving complex wave-control challenges,” he said.
The DECRA scheme forms part of the ARC’s broader Discovery Program and supports promising early-career researchers over three years, enabling them to pursue high-impact research and build Australia’s long-term capability in emerging scientific fields.
