Natalia Litchinitser, Ph.D.

About

Litchinitser holds a Ph.D. Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her primary focus is on metamaterials that manipulate the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Litchinitser began her work with metamaterials as a research scientist at the University of Michigan, and joined the faculty at the University of Buffalo in 2008. Over the next decade, she became one of the leading experts in optical metamaterials. Currently, Litchinitser’s research focuses on topological photonics, which seek to direct light around tight corners using tiny waveguides that prevent photons from scattering. She is Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Eng

Education

• Ph.D. Illinois Institute of Technology, 1997
• Michael J. Fitzpatrick Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Professor of Physics
• Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Selected publications

• Pires DG, Tsvetkov D, Barati Sedeh H, Chandra N, Litchinitser NM. Stability of optical knots in atmospheric turbulence. Nature communications. 2025 Mar;16(1):3001.
• Gao J, Vincenti MA, Frantz J, Clabeau A, Qiao X, Feng L, et al. Near-infrared to ultra-violet frequency conversion in chalcogenide metasurfaces. Nature communications. 2021 Oct;12(1):5833.
• Shalaev MI, Walasik W, Tsukernik A, Xu Y, Litchinitser NM. Robust topologically protected transport in photonic crystals at telecommunication wavelengths. Nature nanotechnology. 2019 Jan;14(1):31u20134.
• Shalaev MI, Walasik W, Tsukernik A, Xu Y, Litchinitser NM. Author Correction: Robust topologically protected transport in photonic crystals at telecommunication wavelengths. Nature nanotechnology. 2019 Jan;14(1):98.
• Duke Honors 38 Distinguished Professors in 2026 (Mar 25, 2026 | )
• Smuggling Light Through Opaque Materials (Oct 13, 2021 | )