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 2012, within this program, Professor Arlene Ford and student Jacob Johnson of Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, worked with Nebraska MRSEC researcher Professor Shireen Adenwalla to fabricate curved surface acoustic wave devices that allow for the focusing of the strain wave. The goal of this work is to use these high amplitude strain waves to explore static and dynamic strain driven phase transitions in a wide variety of materials.
Professor Arlene Ford and student Jacob Johnson, Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa (left) and acoustic wave transducer with a simulated strain distribution (right).
