Augustana University alumna Eleanor Weckwerth ‘23 and Professor of Physics Dr. Eric Wells were part of a research team that was published in “自然通讯” — a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal with 85 million annual downloads.
“It's extremely cool to (have done) work at this level as an undergrad,韦克沃思说. “我很高兴这篇文章发表了, and I'm super glad I got to learn from such a great group of people.”
Weckwerth and Wells joined researchers from Kansas State (KSU) and Michigan State (MSU) Universities to publish “Initial state characterization of hydrogen migration following strong-field double-ionization of ethanol.” The research behind the article began in 2018 using ultrafast laser pulses at the J.R. KSU麦克唐纳实验室.
乙醇的一端有3个氢, 一个在另一端，两个在中间,威尔斯解释道. “The first question was, ‘Would the two in the middle move together and do things collectively?他们回答了这个问题, 但接下来的问题是, ‘Can we figure out what all the hydrogens are doing at the same time?’
“这个氢迁移问题, 正如它的名字一样, is a foundational problem in the field — if you excite or remove electrons, how does that energy couple into making the atoms move?威尔斯继续说. “这是一个基本问题. If you can figure out how all of them are moving, that's what we were after — to try to understand all the different ways it could go and how likely one way was instead of another.”
最后的游戏, 韦尔斯说,, is the ability to use lasers to manipulate molecules exactly as wanted and needed. This, he said, could have potential implications on pharmaceutical and technological industries.
KSU and MSU scientists performed the experiment, and Weckwerth — who triple majored in physics, mathematics and chemistry (ACS) at Augustana — led the data analysis.
“There were seven different experiments because we used seven kinds of ethanol,” 韦尔斯说,. “对于每一个实验, you can imagine all the permutations of the ways ethanol can break into two or three pieces. So, she had to identify the rate at which all of those processes occurred for each of those seven experiments.
“Then she had to write down the system of equations that govern those, and one of our systems had 55 equations in it. So, she had to solve 55 equations simultaneously,威尔斯继续说, adding that those equations didn’t include the unknowns for which Weckwerth also had to solve.
Weckwerth, who is pursuing a graduate degree in physics from Stanford University in California, performed data analysis on the project for more than two years while she was an Augustana student.
“当我开始这个项目的时候, 我认为这是一个有趣的谜题, but as I dug more into the data and began to understand more of the underlying physics, I really began to appreciate the value of the questions we were studying — plus, 这仍然是一个有趣的谜题,韦克沃思说. “That's what made me want to continue doing similar research in grad school.”
对于Weckwerth, 虽然工作很紧张, it was an opportunity that not many undergraduate students get, especially at smaller institutions like Augustana. Many of the published articles in “自然通讯” come from doctoral universities (R1s) or researchers in national laboratories, 说井.
随着项目的进展, I was able to use what I was learning outside of the research in my physics classes about how to ask the right questions and present information clearly,韦克沃思说. “Dr. Wells helped me with every step of the process, constantly answering my questions about everything from the technical details of the analysis to the physics behind the processes we were studying.”
Wells credits these opportunities for students to Augustana’s primary partnership with KSU that began in 2003 when he arrived at Augustana. The universities have joint grants, including ones that have paid for new lasers at KSU. Wells has spent sabbaticals at the Kansas campus, AU students have pursued graduate school there — including Dr. 宝芬妮·约金11岁, one of the paper’s other authors — and more than 30 students have done research there as AU undergraduates.
“因为我们的合作伙伴知道我们做得很好, 他们渴望与我们合作, and this turns into outstanding student opportunities,”医生说。. 内森·格劳，12bet中文官方平台物理学教授. “Eleanor had a leadership role on an internationally-recognized research project because of the relationships our faculty maintain.”
Augustana’s portion of the research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). 已经是我.R. Macdonald Laboratory and MSU’s portion of the research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Offices of Science and Basic Energy Sciences, 以及化学科学, 地球科学和生物科学部.
To learn more about the physics major at Augustana, visit 奥吉.edu/physics.