Our Crowdfunding Groups
Help Young Scientists Pursue Research
in Magnetism and Superconductivity!
When asked:
“What experience was most meaningful to you during your academic career?”
A UT physics FRI alumnus answered:
“The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) was one of the very unique experiences I had while at UT Austin. I got to actually do science and not just read about it . . . getting that early exposure to work in a lab was really something that helped sustain my passion, and it is one of the reasons I continue doing research today. The long arc to where I am now really started with the FRI program.”
— AbdulRaheem Bello, The Texas Scientist, Spring 2017
The Markert Lab’s Magnetic Matter: Freshman Research Initiative in Physics is the physics 
stream of the College of Natural Sciences FRI program that gets students involved in research early in their undergraduate years.
This program has been demonstrated to increase student retention and shorten time to graduation. Our stream has provided many scores of young researchers with their first stepping-stone to successful laboratory careers in physics, materials science, and engineering.
The Magnetic Matter Physics FRI wants to raise the stature of the program above the excellent baseline support provided by CNS. In particular, we need:
1) Student fellowships (to extend project time, scope, accomplishments).
2) Liquid Cryogens (for special techniques: 3He, SQUID, or high magnetic field).
3) Materials and Supplies (substrates, gases, electronic and optical components).
Your help will enable undergraduate students to pursue:
New Superconducting Materials:
Pulsed laser deposition for epitaxial film growth; flux, vapor-phase,
and electrolytic crystal growth;
high pressure (25 kbar) synthesis; electron-beam deposition of films.
Experiments:
Transport and ac susceptibility; upper critical fields, Hall effect; x-ray diffraction and low-angle x-ray scattering; transport and magnetism under high pressure (20 kbar); nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation times (dynamics); thermal conductivity: one-dimensional magnon transport; heat capacity: phase transitions and critical phenomena.
Unusual measurements:
High-Q mechanical oscillators (superconducting vortex motion); new: first Einstein-de Haas effect experiment; NMRFM (force-detected NMR microscopic imaging); new: catheter-based magnetic resonance imaging.
Our physics graduates comment:
“As a relatively recent alum of a CNS FRI program, I know first-hand the value of hands-on research for future scientists and engineers.” — Amanda Turbyfill, Physics FRI Alumna
“ I come from a Hispanic family, Guatemala to be more precise, and am a first generation college student. I am the only child in my family to be pursuing an advanced degree (PhD).” — Jeffrey Vit, Physics FRI Alumnus
Warm regards,
John
Your gift of $50 will provide materials for undergraduates to explore new magnetic and superconducting compounds and crystals!
Your gift of $100 will provide for two low-temperature SQUID magnetic measurements, or will buy a major fiber-optic component!
Your gift of $200 can permit a 3He cool-down to 0.3 K for quantum transport measurements, or buy a bunch of crystal substrates for epitaxial films!
Your gift of $500 will provide one undergraduate with a 5-hour/week semester-long research fellowship!
Your gift of $1000 will provide one undergraduate with a 10-hour/week semester-long research fellowship, or provide high magnetic fields for four months of research for many!
Your gift of $2000 will provide high-purity gases for pulsed laser deposition of films, or a 20-hour/week summer undergraduate research fellowship in magnetism and superconductivity!
