| Country | United States |
| City | New York, NY |
| Tier | Engineered emissivity (Tier III) |
| Primary ecosystem | Engineered emissivity — LWIR nanostructures |
| Relevant unit | Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics |
| Principal investigator | Nanfang Yu |
| Signature wavelength regime | Long-wavelength infrared |
Yu’s group works on the control of long-wavelength infrared radiation using nanostructured materials, and Columbia’s own pages tie that work directly to cooling, thermal radiation, and bio-inspired radiative-cooling materials. This is a strong example of the engineered-emissivity / radiative-cooling branch of the field.
Control of long-wavelength infrared radiation using nanostructured materials; bio-inspired radiative-cooling materials; connections between nanophotonic design and thermal emission behavior.
A significant strand of the radiative-cooling literature concerns the deliberate engineering of emissivity spectra in the 8–13 µm atmospheric window. Yu’s group is one of the academic centers where that nanostructure-level design work is developed, and where bio-inspired structures are brought into contact with photonic engineering. It illustrates how emissivity is increasingly treated as a property to be patterned at the micro- and nanoscale, not merely measured on a bulk sample.
Every claim in this profile traces to the external sources listed above. Profile follows the research-map methodology. Last verified: 2026-04 (directory revision 2026-06-11).