He uses high-powered lasers to analyze these transient molecules. Studies of reactive intermediates may hold the key to improving the chemical purity of computer chips. Many of the computer chips that are grown cannot be used because they have chemical contamination, so there's a huge research effort going on all over the world to try to figure out how the chemical processes work at the very elementary level so we can improve efficiency. Molecules with this characteristic get rid of the energy they absorb from a flash of laser light in an oscillating or beating pattern. Mark Summers holds degrees from Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the UK history faculty in 1984.
Summers is the author of four books, all published by major university presses.
His most recent book, The Press Gang , analyzes the connection between journalism and politics in the Gilded Age, the last three decades of the 19th century, which were characterized by a greatly expanding economy. During his year as a Research Professor, Summers will continue to focus on the Gilded Age in his next book, The Owner's Manual . This book will study how politics actually worked in the period of 1870 to 1900 America. The Owner's Manual will reveal many of the dirty campaign tactics Summers found in researching UK's 19th-century newspaper collection. It's unbelievable what tactics you find.