I investigated the origin of patterns that appear in alloys when grown from a melt. Those patterns reflect the conditions during growth of the alloy as fluctuations in the concentration of alloy components on a microscopic scale. Understanding the physics behind these patterns could prove useful in the development of new alloys and alloy processing techniques, since the strength of the alloy strongly depends on this concentration microstructure. I developed a new perturbation technique that allows measurements of the response of a growing solid to spatially perioidc perturbations. I have been co-supervising four summer research projects in the past two summers that have resulted in two publications.
Additional publications are in progress.
As a recent graduate, I hope to assist students in their decisions on a career in physics. As a participant in an NSF sponsored course on career development, I have studied the diverse employment opportunities for physics Ph. D's and important strategies for success.