The Nebraska MRSEC Professor/Student Pairs Program brings in a professor and a student from non-research intensive four-year institutions to conduct research with Nebraska MRSEC scientists. The goal is to offer a research experience which benefits both the participants and the MRSEC projects. This program provides opportunities for the professor to conduct new research, access to facilities typically unavailable at their home institution, and make strong and lasting connections with MRSEC researchers; for the student to acquire new expertise and training; for the MRSEC scientist to establish new collaborations and mentoring practices.
In summer 2013, Professor Dhananjay Kumar and student David Thompson of North Carolina A&T University worked with Nebraska MRSEC researcher Professor Jeff Shield. The research was focused on creating extensive (i.e., non-equilibrium) solid solution alloys between iron (Fe) and tungsten (W) or tantalum (Ta), and then studying their magnetic behavior. David fabricated the alloys using high-energy mechanical alloying, and discovered that Ta dissolved into the Fe much more readily than did W. He and Prof. Kumar also fabricated alloys using arc melting, which were utilized as targets for pulsed laser deposition of thin films back in Prof. Kumar’s lab at North Carolina. The complementary expertise of both synthesis and characterization between the two research groups bodes well for a productive long-term collaboration.
Student David Thompson from North Carolina A&T working in Nebraska MRSEC laboratory.
