About the programme

The Quest for Ultimate Electromagnetics using Spatial Transformations (QUEST) was one of the flagship Programme Grants of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK. Attracting funding of £4.5million over five years, this multi-disciplinary collaboration was led by Queen Mary, University of London, in conjunction with the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter. This ambitious project, beginning in July 2011 and ending in March 2017, brought together theoretical and experimental physics, and electrical and materials engineering, and aimed to introduce a paradigm shift in the manipulation of electromagnetic fields through the development and application of new theory, the creation of innovative computer-aided design tools, and the manufacture and characterisation of novel devices and systems enabled by the production of radically new materials. 

This Programme Grant, number EP/I034548/1, addressed some of the exciting opportunities and challenges emerging in the area of spatial transformations (STs) and electromagnetism (EM). Recent UK-led breakthroughs in the theory of STs, such as the possibilities concerning cloaking and invisibility, have caught both the scientific and popular imagination, and have stimulated a huge growth in related research around the world. The potential of the underlying ST approaches, however, have much wider applicability than cloaking alone, in arguably more important applications that span communications, energy transfer, sensors and security. However, theory and concepts are outstripping practical demonstration and testing, leading to a mismatch in what may be theorised and computed and what can be realised for impact in society and commerce. We aimed to address these issues over the course of the project. 

Within these pages, you will find more information on our research objectives and methodologies, news articles describing our research, and much more, including a reference database of papers related to spatial transformations, transformation optics and metamaterials, our own publications list and the facilities we utilised in our work. 

If you wish to contact us for any reason, please visit the Contact page.