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Riccardo Sapienza

@riccard0.bsky.social
862 followers 343 following 93 posts

Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, exploring light at the nanoscale, trying to make sense of the world, nanophotonic enthusiast - proud dad of 2

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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
News from the lab! 🤩 Is it possible to switch a material from being an absorber to an amplifier just by changing the phase of light? By treating a thin film of ITO as a time-varying medium, we achieved 400% amplification and 80% absorption within the same structure. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Optical coherent perfect absorption and amplification in a time-varying medium - Nature Photonics
The researchers show that a subwavelength film of indium tin oxide, the bulk permittivity of which is strategically modulated via optical pumping, can be dynamically tuned to act as both a non-resonan...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Interesting article on UK academia and its financial pressure by @milespadgett.bsky.social and @antonmuscatelli.bsky.social wonkhe.com/blogs/a-more...
wonkhe.com
A more focused research system does not by itself solve structural deficits
Anton Muscatelli and Miles Padgett think through the deeper issues in UK research – from cost recovery and dual support to doctoral training and organisational structure – that won’t be solved by simp...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Join our team at Imperial College London! 🚀 I am looking for a postdoctoral researcher in time-varying metamaterials and ultrafast structured light in space and time. 👉 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPX643/r... 🔹 Deadline: 31st January 2026 #Photonics #Postdoc #Physics #Metamaterials #ScienceJobs
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Cannot agree more profserious.substack.com/p/my-new-yea...
profserious.substack.com
My New Year Wishes for Universities
... a modest list
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Reposted by Riccardo Sapienza
Prof Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Dead 💀
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
It was a great honor to step on the "aula Rostagni" @unipd.bsky.social Università degli Studi di Padova, and give a talk, in the same place where 25 years before I was defending my MSci thesis... If you had asked me then I would never have guessed that www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L_x...
youtube.com
Riccardo Sapienza - Metamaterials that vary in time unlock superluminal motion
YouTube video by Aula Rostagni UniPadova DFA
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
The life of a PhD student is not only in the lab, Dimitrie has explored the boundary between innovation, technology and policy. All this while completing his PhD last week! 🍾 physicsworld.com/a/bridging-t...
physicsworld.com
Bridging the gap between scientists, policy makers and industry to build the quantum ecosystem – Physics World
Elizabeth Pasatembou and Dimitrie Cielecki discuss their experience of doing science policy engagement during their PhDs
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Metamaterials right? 😜 physicsworld.com/a/quantum-in...
physicsworld.com
Quantum information or metamaterials: our predictions for this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics – Physics World
It’s a mug’s game, but we always have a go
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Do not miss John’s interview on metamaterials www.economist.com/podcasts/202...
economist.com
John Pendry: the physics of invisibility
Our podcast on science and technology. This week, theoretical physicist John Pendry explains the mind-bending science of metamaterials
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Anthony made this grest video to explain what we discovered in www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMvB...
youtube.com
Help! We Broke the Speed of Light!
YouTube video by Physics with Tony
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
What a visionary Man Ray was! nyer.cm/nE3Yl5y
nyer.cm
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
And IMAP takes off! 🚀With an Imperial-built instrument 😜 science.nasa.gov/mission/imap/
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Weekend baking, bomboloni sourdough, recipe by Maurizio Leo www.theperfectloaf.com/naturally-le...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Morning bake, after so long! #sourdough #academicbaking
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
London with the sun!
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
super Jack!! such an exciting project! 🤩
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
One week left to apply!
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Reposted by Riccardo Sapienza
Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Join our team, we are recruiting! 🫵 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNZ308/r...
jobs.ac.uk
Research Assistant/Associate at Imperial College London
Discover an exciting academic career path as a Research Assistant/Associate at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
How scientist are responding to the dismantling of the scientific system in US, to preserve integrity and truth www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Scientists’ role in defending democracy
The United States’ democratic leadership, commitment to freedom of expression, and investment in the pursuit of knowledge have long enabled its preeminence in science and technology. Yet today we are ...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Do you know how university finances works? profserious.substack.com/p/understand...
profserious.substack.com
Understanding University Finances
... a very short guide
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Nice taking about our work on time-varying media @spie.org Join our team, we are recruiting! 🫵
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Taking off for SPIE Optics+Photonics in San Diego, if you are there and want to meet just let me know! Or come to my talk on Monday @spie.org
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Reposted by Riccardo Sapienza
Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
The Royal Astronomical Society is pleased to congratulate Professor Michele Dougherty on her appointment as the first female Astronomer Royal. 🔭💫🪐 Read more at: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre... ⤵️
Professor Michele Dougherty.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
x.com/theeconomist...
x.com
The Economist on X: "If computing power brings about technological advances without human input, and enough of the pay-off is reinvested in building still more powerful machines, wealth could accumulate at unprecedented speed https://t.co/468PT8ywKn" / X
If computing power brings about technological advances without human input, and enough of the pay-off is reinvested in building still more powerful machines, wealth could accumulate at unprecedented speed https://t.co/468PT8ywKn
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Join our team to work on ultrafast spectroscopy of time-varying metamaterials, within our project meta4d.co.uk more details: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNZ308/r...
jobs.ac.uk
Research Assistant/Associate at Imperial College London
Apply for the Research Assistant/Associate role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
New paper from the lab, @razimantv.bsky.social, Paco Rodriguez and team found out surface plasmon polariton can be excitated in time-modulated media! arxiv.org/abs/2507.05126
arxiv.org
Surface Plasmon Polariton Excitation in Time-modulated Media
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are central to application areas such as sensing, energy harvesting, and nanoscale optics, and are typically excited via spatial structuring -- an approach lacking dy...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Great to be at ETOPIM13 in New York, wonderful workshop, thank you Andrea Alù and Emil Prodan. See you at the next edition in 2028... etopim13.sciencesconf.org
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
So excited to get the chance to explore light interaction with synthetically moving metamaterials 💡🏃 supported by @erc.europa.eu via the #ERCAdG LUMINOUS!
media.tenor.com
a group of minions are standing next to each other and they are laughing and saying yay
ALT: a group of minions are standing next to each other and they are laughing and saying yay
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
The workshop in Wave propagation and material response in time-varying media is kicking off! meta4d.co.uk/workshop-on-...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Wonderful to host Prof Anne L’Hullier, discussing the first observations of high-harmonic generation which gave her the Nobel prize in 2023
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Some interesting ideas, and a reminder of never stopping questioning how we do and organise science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Rules all PIs should follow
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Reposted by Riccardo Sapienza
T V Raziman @razimantv.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
"Synthetic" motion can be faster than light! The trick is to change the properties of a material in a way resembling a Mexican wave: Although no one leaves their seat, their organised motion creates a wave. We can make such a change in a material, faster than light, with intense laser illumination.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
New paper from the lab, where we play with superluminal interactions (without breaking relativity!) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Space-time optical diffraction from synthetic motion - Nature Communications
Relativistic motion enables unusual light-matter interactions. Here, authors use ultrafast lasers to create synthetically moving reflectivity patterns that diffract light in space and time, enabling t...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
The UK is getting more and more active in Metamaterials! Now we have a Metamaterials Hub 🎉 www.ukri.org/news/turning...
ukri.org
Turning artificial materials into real-life solutions
A state-of-the-art hub will develop new forms of base materials, designed at microscopic scale, for use in everything from computer hardware to food colouring.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Wonderful conference in Madrid meta4d.co.uk/waves-in-tim... Or is it Casa de Papel?
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
News from the lab: Doubly Resonant c-GaP Nanocavity for Second Harmonic Generation, great collaboration with Boris Kalinic and Giovanni Mattei pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org
Doubly Resonant c-GaP Nanocavity for Second Harmonic Generation
We present a doubly resonant nanocavity for second harmonic generation (SHG) in the visible range, consisting of a 590 nm crystalline gallium phosphide (c-GaP) layer, a gold mirror, and a silica space...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Our lab at Imperial shown by Sukorno @imperialphysics.bsky.social www.instagram.com/reel/DJTz2V6...
instagram.com
Login • Instagram
Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
📢 The #MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call is now OPEN! Apply to join Imperial Physics and advance your research in a world-class UK environment. Reach out to join our team! marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/news/msca-op...
marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu
MSCA opens €404.3 million call for Postdoctoral Fellowships
Postdoctoral Fellowships offer researchers holding a PhD the opportunity to acquire new skills through advanced training and international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral mobility.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Happiness is flour from a water mill
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Wonderful visit today by Frank Sheffold, talking about complex photonics
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Reposted by Riccardo Sapienza
Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
UK ‘gains more access’ to Horizon funding for quantum and space. Science minister urges UK researchers to “seize moment” as EU research funding opportunities grow. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
UK ‘gains more access’ to Horizon funding for quantum and space - Research Professional News
Science minister urges UK researchers to “seize moment” as EU research funding opportunities grow
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Join us at the Workshop on wave propagation and material response in time-varying media, June 2025 at Imperial www.imperial.ac.uk/events/19066...
imperial.ac.uk
Workshop on wave propagation and material response in time-varying media
This workshop brings together experts from Physics and Mathematics from UK and Europe to identify the key challenges and opportunities in the field, and discuss a roadmap for future research.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Very good option piece on the UK research assessment (REF) wonkhe.com/blogs/portab...
wonkhe.com
Portability within REF remains key to fairness
Maria Delgado, Nandini Das, and Miles Padgett warn that separating research outputs from the researchers who created them in REF 2029 would undermine the integrity of the whole research environment
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Join our lab as part of the Encode: AI for Science Fellowship. We're looking for AI experts to develop computational solutions to our laser-based neuromorphic computing scheme. lu.ma/encode-proje...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
I also agree that openness is they key skill for a researcher www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Openness guides discovery - Nature Biotechnology
Nature Biotechnology - Openness guides discovery
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Enjoying the Workshop on metamaterials with extra dimensions, kindly hosted by colleagues at Mathematics, quite a new experience for me ;-) metamaterials.network/workshop-on-...
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Join our lab to work on “AI for Neuromorphic computing! encode.pillar.vc/projects/pho...
encode.pillar.vc
ARIA Opportunity Space: Nature Computes Better
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
I celebrate submission more than success😜 reward the effort 🤟. One more today…
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Reposted by Riccardo Sapienza
Imperial Science @imperialsci.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
🔬🌀 From black holes to earthquake shields, Sir John Pendry’s lecture this year explored how #metamaterials help us bend reality! @imperialphysics.bsky.social These engineered materials defy optical limits & enable us to manipulate waves like never before 🔽 www.imperial.ac.uk/news/261753/...
imperial.ac.uk
How metamaterials bend reality: from earthquake shields to lab-grown black holes | Imperial News | Imperial College London
Sir John Pendry’s lecture showed how engineered materials make sci-fi real, from invisibility cloaks to microscopes revealing the nanoscopic world.
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Riccardo Sapienza @riccard0.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
What a great story! Hackers trying to bring the Human Ai Pin back to life, showing the power of open source/open innovation www.wired.com/story/the-hu...
wired.com
The Humane Ai Pin Has Already Been Brought Back to Life
Humane bricked its pricey gadget on Friday afternoon. A short time later, a hacker got the codes to unlock it and potentially turn it into the true smartphone replacement it was meant to be.
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