A few optics/metamaterials highlights from META 2026

This past week I attended META 2026 , the 16th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics, at Trinity College, Dublin. This was the first time I've ever gone to this conference, which has grown from somewhat blurry beginnings to a ~ 900+ person annual event. Here are a few scientific highlights: Metasurfaces , built up from spatial arrays of dielectric (or…