Pioneers in metamaterials: John Pendry and Victor Veselago

This article is a tribute designed to praise two great scientists who have set the world alight by stimulating boundless curiosity about metamaterials. It is stated early on that it is not intended to be a technical review but one from which it is possible to understand what the excitement is about. To achieve this outcome some simple discussions of refractive index are used as a means of getting to the now famous concept of negative index. After some selective, quasi-historical, development, the article moves on to a specific section about the pioneers themselves. It presents some impressions of their backgrounds, including the fact that John Pendry is now known now as Sir John Pendry. This flows from the recognition of his work by Queen Elizabeth. It is acknowledged that Victor Veselago truly guided the world along the track of negative refraction with a remarkable display of prescience. It is asserted that metamaterials have a brilliant future and that very important work is progressing towards the production of loss-free and active negative index and other forms of metamaterials. It pointed out that the control of light paths through the distortion of space is currently a major outcome from the groundbreaking work of the pioneers and that, in fact, light concentrators and optical black holes may well be life-transforming consequences. Indeed, in the conclusion, it is stated, unreservedly, that the whole world is indebted to John Pendry and Victor Veselago. (community perspective)