Congratulations to Amir Ali Tavallaee, for winning the EE department’s “Distinguished PhD Dissertation Award in Physical & Wave Electronics” for 2012-13! His thesis on “Terahertz Quantum-Cascade Transmission-Line Metamaterials” includes a report of the first composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission line metamaterial implemented with laser gain. Such a structure exhibits left-handed, or negative-index wave propagation, where the energy moves in the opposite direction as the wave fronts. Such a structure can be used to make leaky-wave THz antennas where the beam can be scanned from forward to backward.