edX Online
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Svetlana Boriskina

Principal Research Scientist and the Director of Multifunctional Metamaterials (META) Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

About me

Dr. Svetlana V. Boriskina is a Principal Research Scientist and the Director of Multifunctional Metamaterials (META) Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She earned a Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics (1999) and M.Sc. in Radiophysics and Electronics (1995) from Kharkiv National University in Ukraine, and a M.Sc. in Patent Law and Informatics from Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute (1995). Dr. Boriskina’s multi-disciplinary research at MIT blends polymer, fiber, and textile engineering with photonics, opto-electronics, thermodynamics, and mechanics. Her META Research Lab pioneered smart stain-resistant fabrics that provide thermal comfort indoors and outdoors, new meta-materials that bend light in unusual ways and exhibit tunable color without any dyes or pigments, fiber-based solid-state cooling technologies to replace conventional HVACs, and opto-thermo-mechanical technologies to provide clean energy and fresh water to off-electrical-grid and disaster-stricken communities. Many textile technologies (and associated patents) discussed in the class originate from Dr. Boriskina’s MIT META lab.