starfractal
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The 'welcome' email suggests posting a 'hello', so here it is---
I’m Nathan “Chip” Cohen, an astrophysicist, inventor, and longtime applied scientist. My scientific roots go back to Cornell, where I earned my astrophysics Ph.D. in 1985, working on gravitational lensing and VLBI arrays, with Frank Drake as my advisor. That work grew out of a broader interest in how electromagnetic radiation propagates through complex environments—and in the sometimes surprising ways geometry, scale, and structure can influence what we observe.
I later taught at Boston University , while increasingly moving into applied electromagnetics and antenna research. Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I explored fractal geometry as an engineering tool rather than simply a mathematical curiosity. That work led to fractal antennas and, later, fractal resonators and metamaterial structures. Seeking greater scientific expression than academia affords, I founded Fractal Antenna Systems, now FRACTAL, where much of my career has involved taking ideas from mathematical physics through prototypes and into practical RF systems.
Over the years I have been granted roughly 95 U.S. patents covering antennas, electromagnetic structures, metamaterials, cloaking, acoustic systems, and related technologies. One of those, U.S. Patent 8,253,639, covers an electromagnetic invisibility cloak; this foundational work was publicly demonstrated beginning in 2009. There are plenty of videos, demonstrations, and publications documenting the work. My metamaterials and cloaking work was featured on the cover of Microwave Journal in 2015, among others. I have been featured on NOVA and other media through the years, Other projects have included broadband and multiband antennas, phased arrays, electromagnetic shielding, counter-cloaking concepts, and, more recently, satellite and direct-to-device communications.
I must admit that I have been disappointed—for the field—that some of my colleagues in metamaterials have not cited the earlier fractal efforts. In cloaking and elsewhere, I believe this is a fundamental technical omission: fractals are a natural route to broader-band behavior, the controlled excitation of evanescent fields, multiscale response, and related effects. To be brief, I do not support “consensus science” when it becomes a substitute for examining the record, nor do I support the ghosting of colleagues or their contributions. Scientific progress is best served by attribution, open discourse, and results that can withstand scrutiny.
At this point I am quite happy to be a senior member of the field and remain highly productive, particularly in new applied-physics initiatives. My current interests span wave phenomena, antennas, propagation, astrophysics, metamaterials, fractals, acoustics, advanced apertures, metasurface detection, thermal transport, and other problems at the boundary between fundamental physics and technologies that can actually be built. I joined Physics Forums because I enjoy serious technical discussion, including objective disagreement, and because there are still plenty of worthwhile problems to discuss—and occasionally solve.
I’m Nathan “Chip” Cohen, an astrophysicist, inventor, and longtime applied scientist. My scientific roots go back to Cornell, where I earned my astrophysics Ph.D. in 1985, working on gravitational lensing and VLBI arrays, with Frank Drake as my advisor. That work grew out of a broader interest in how electromagnetic radiation propagates through complex environments—and in the sometimes surprising ways geometry, scale, and structure can influence what we observe.
I later taught at Boston University , while increasingly moving into applied electromagnetics and antenna research. Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I explored fractal geometry as an engineering tool rather than simply a mathematical curiosity. That work led to fractal antennas and, later, fractal resonators and metamaterial structures. Seeking greater scientific expression than academia affords, I founded Fractal Antenna Systems, now FRACTAL, where much of my career has involved taking ideas from mathematical physics through prototypes and into practical RF systems.
Over the years I have been granted roughly 95 U.S. patents covering antennas, electromagnetic structures, metamaterials, cloaking, acoustic systems, and related technologies. One of those, U.S. Patent 8,253,639, covers an electromagnetic invisibility cloak; this foundational work was publicly demonstrated beginning in 2009. There are plenty of videos, demonstrations, and publications documenting the work. My metamaterials and cloaking work was featured on the cover of Microwave Journal in 2015, among others. I have been featured on NOVA and other media through the years, Other projects have included broadband and multiband antennas, phased arrays, electromagnetic shielding, counter-cloaking concepts, and, more recently, satellite and direct-to-device communications.
I must admit that I have been disappointed—for the field—that some of my colleagues in metamaterials have not cited the earlier fractal efforts. In cloaking and elsewhere, I believe this is a fundamental technical omission: fractals are a natural route to broader-band behavior, the controlled excitation of evanescent fields, multiscale response, and related effects. To be brief, I do not support “consensus science” when it becomes a substitute for examining the record, nor do I support the ghosting of colleagues or their contributions. Scientific progress is best served by attribution, open discourse, and results that can withstand scrutiny.
At this point I am quite happy to be a senior member of the field and remain highly productive, particularly in new applied-physics initiatives. My current interests span wave phenomena, antennas, propagation, astrophysics, metamaterials, fractals, acoustics, advanced apertures, metasurface detection, thermal transport, and other problems at the boundary between fundamental physics and technologies that can actually be built. I joined Physics Forums because I enjoy serious technical discussion, including objective disagreement, and because there are still plenty of worthwhile problems to discuss—and occasionally solve.
