UAB Physics Department Joins Prestigious Carnegie Alliance, Will Study Rare Earth Metals

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) students will get an unprecedented research opportunity at one of the nation’s leading laboratories, and UAB will join a prominent Carnegie research alliance, thanks to a three-year, $231,262 grant from the Stockpile Stewardship Academic Alliance Program of the U.S. Department of Energy.

July 25, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) students will get an unprecedented research opportunity at one of the nation’s leading laboratories, and UAB will join a prominent Carnegie research alliance, thanks to a three-year, $231,262 grant from the Stockpile Stewardship Academic Alliance Program of the U.S. Department of Energy.

As part of this grant, UAB becomes a partner in an X-ray beam line dedicated for research at Argonne National Laboratory. Two graduate students per year will take part in the research program, traveling with principal investigator and UAB physics Professor Yogesh Vohra, Ph.D., to Argonne in Chicago to conduct research with designer diamonds created at UAB in Vohra’s physics laboratory. Undergraduate student involved in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates at UAB also will take part in the program.

“Our research focuses on the study of rare earth metals,” Vohra said. “The UAB students involved in the alliance will study phase changes using designer diamond technology developed here.”

UAB, joins California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Chicago and University of California at Berkeley, as a member of the Carnegie-Department of Energy Alliance Center. The mission of the alliance is high pressure and temperature experimental materials science.

Vohra said the alliance will fund an X-ray defraction site to study the structure of rare earth materials at high temperatures and pressures. X-ray is one way of studying whether materials could have industrial applications. The X-ray facility, or beam line, at Argonne is the best facility of its kind in the world.

The UAB team’s research will use a diamond-overlaid sensor to perform measurements in harsh chemical and mechanical environments. Sample materials will be placed between two designer diamonds. Then diamonds will be brought together to apply high pressure and Argonne’s laser will create high temperatures. Vohra said the sample material, under extreme temperatures and pressures, could change its properties and form a new material.

Vohra said the alliance and its explorations are an exciting way to use his designer-diamond research. This also is a most exciting opportunity for UAB students. “This new alliance will enable our students to work with world renowned scientists and perhaps secure a job with a national laboratory.”