Nanoscientist in the making
Alycia Brown was in the heart of Silicon Valley, smack dab in the middle of the headquarters for Adobe and Google. Her home base, the IBM Almaden Research Center, was just around the corner, and she found herself on the cutting edge of researching materials for solar cells.
A senior chemistry and math major from Galion, Ohio, Alycia was the recipient of a prestigious National Science Foundation summer internship for IBM, located in San Jose, Calif. NSF funds the Research Experience for Undergraduates program that involves the general areas of chemistry and engineering of information technology-related materials in partnership with San Jose State University. Successful recipients receive stipends for the 10-week program, completed under the mentorship of scientists at Almaden and/or SJSU.Alycia admits to knowing nothing about nanocrystal research before heading west. “I had never heard of this field, so I read lots of research articles before I arrived,” she said. It didn’t take her long to get excited about her work, however, and she utilized all of her time to learn.
Her team studied the synthesis on one type of nanocrystal, called cadmium telluride. Alycia described it as “a gorgeous synthesis.”
“Depending on when you stop the reaction, you can get them to fluoresce different colors,” she explained. Her field was a combination of organic and inorganic synthesis.
Throughout the 10 weeks of her internship, Alycia worked side by side with post-doctoral student Miri Kazes. “It was really nice because she (Miri) had confidence in my work,” she said. She also worked side by side with students from much larger research institutions like Princeton and UCLA.
Those types of networking opportunities, along with collaborating with other interns, were the best part of the experience for Alycia.
“I wouldn’t be here applying to graduate schools like Columbia, UC-Berkeley, even Northwestern, if this experience hadn’t given me the confidence and guided me toward nanoscience research,” she said. “It opened up all kinds of possibilities.”
The internship program includes a special seminar series which was held at Stanford, career discussions and a concluding poster scientific meeting. For Alycia, these experiences – including a career day at IBM – were as valuable as the actual research.
“It was just a fantastic experience.”
Posted on Nov. 14, 2008