Chemistry and Physics Departments Work with Sol-Gels

Hamilton students Jessica Callahan '04, Laura Crandall '04, Emin Hodzic '05, and Daniel Leonard '03, have been spending the summer doing research with Associate Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer. Their research has been done in conjunction with fellow classmates Daniel Allen '04 and Stephanie Higgins '04, who are working with Associate Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith. Brewer and her students have been making sol-gel glass, which is glass that is made from slowly grown chemicals infused with rare earth elements, as opposed to the more commonly created glass from sand. While the process is much longer (each sol-gel takes about three to four weeks to complete), it is believed that the optical quality of the glass made from chemicals is greatly enhanced. The correlation between the two groups is that sol-gels, when infused with rare earth elements, will glow under a laser light. Allen and Higgins have been running lasers through sol-gels created by Brewer and her students to discover aspects of "solid state physics." Each of Brewer's students has been experimenting with different aspects of the sol-gels. Callahan, a chemical physics major, has been focusing on adding zirconium to the glass—a brand new experiment, which Brewer notes, "She did perfectly." Callahan had taken a class from Brewer and felt that summer research would be a good opportunity to take advantage of. Crandall is a Women's studies major and chemistry minor, proving that one does not need to major in a science to pursue research opportunities. She has been exploring the effects that temperatures, up to one thousand degrees, have on the composition of the sol-gels. Hodzic had previously taken a class from Brewer, but had also worked for her during the past semester doing similar experiments and research. Leonard has been studying the effects of adding geranium to the sol-gels. A chemistry major, this is Leonard's second year doing summer research and he plans to continue and develop this experiment into his senior research project. Allen, a physics major, wanted to do summer science research because he heard that "it was a lot of fun." Since then, Allen has discovered that there are many more benefits to summer research than merely enjoying oneself. He notes that the research has helped to reinforce physics principles and concepts and has allowed him to apply experimental work to a much larger field. Higgins, also a physics major, described Silversmith as being "very approachable." She also described a daily "teatime" that the entire physics department takes part in. Higgins feels that this not only creates a nice break in the day, it also enables the students and professors to have intimate discussions on various physics topics.