Dr. WONG: Next-generation technologies necessitate innovation in materials to enable new properties to meet future industrial and societal demands. In particular, optical and thermal materials and devices with exceptional performances are highly sought after for a myriad of applications including sensing, imaging, navigation, communication, and energy harvesting. Here we explore the use of artificially-structured metamaterials and nanophotonic concepts to manipulate electromagnetic waves in the visible and infrared wavelengths. First, I will show the possibility to engineer fundamental material properties such as refractive index and thermal emissivity and attain unconventional material behaviors. Next, I will discuss the realization of new optical and thermal devices such as invisibility cloaks, laser-absorbers, and directional thermal displays by exploiting wave-matter interaction at the micro- and nanoscale. Finally, I will reveal some of our works integrating metamaterials with advanced materials like halide perovskites and transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers to produce compact light-emitting devices with enriched functionalities.