People, papers and presentations

Pengcheng Dai, professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the Rice Center for Quantum Materials, has been chosen to present an overview of neutron scattering results on iron-based superconductors in the prestigious journal Reviews of Modern Physics. The journal publishes fewer than 50 articles per year and boasts an average number of citations per article — a metric known as “impact factor” — of 29.6, which is among the highest of any journal in the physical sciences. Dai‘s review article, “Antiferromagnetic Order and Spin Dynamics in Iron-Based Superconductors,” which was published Aug. 20, focuses on iron-based materials called pnictides and chalcogenides that were discovered to be high-temperature superconductors less than a decade ago. Dai’s report presents a comprehensive account of what physicists have learned over the past seven years about the unique magnetic properties of the iron-based materials and the relationship between those properties and superconductivity.

Jennifer Hargrave, a doctoral candidate in English, received a 2015–16 American Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The fellowship will provide a $20,000 grant to support her dissertation research for the upcoming year. Hargrave’s dissertation, “The Romantic Reinvention of Imperial China, 1759-1857,” explores “literature’s entanglement with Anglo-Sino relations in the 18th and 19th centuries through an analysis of canonical and archival materials of European and Chinese origin,” according to the AAUW’s announcement.

Isabell Thomann, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and graduate students Hossein Robatjazi (ECE), Shah Mohammad Bahauddin (physics and astronomy) and Chloe Doiron (applied physics) published a study Aug. 5 in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters. They explored a novel concept for the efficient conversion of solar energy to “hot” charge carriers that have the potential to drive photochemical reactions. The study, “Direct Plasmon-Driven Photoelectrocatalysis,” reported photoconversion efficiencies on par with those of considerably more sophisticated and expensive structures that have employed rare and expensive platinum catalysts to boost efficiency.