Senior's chemistry research published in science journal Nature

As Joanna Slusky '01 spends her time trying to publish a year's amount of research between a thesis' black binding, a thinner, glossier publication with a nationally-recognized name hit news stands this week also baring her name.

Slusky — a chemistry major — is the primary author of a paper published yesterday in the science journal Nature. The paper explores how small changes in a metallic compound's composition effect its superconductivity.

The paper was prepared earlier this year after the discovery that a chemical compound used for many years is a superconductor at certain temperatures. Slusky explained that some materials, if cooled to low enough temperatures, enter a state called superconductivity, in which they conduct electricity without wasting energy.

The paper Slusky and her colleagues at the Princeton Materials Institute wrote looked at the effect of adding aluminum to the composite of magnesium and boron. The researchers found that adding even a small amount of aluminum caused the compound to lose its superconductivity.

"The material lost its superconductivity in an interesting way," chemistry professor Robert Cava— Slusky's adviser — explained. "That's why [the paper] was published in Nature."

Cava said that it is very rare for an undergraduate to publish a paper in Nature. "Nature has the highest standard for publication of any journal," he said.

"Joanna played a big role in getting some very cool results," Cava said. "She worked extremely hard, way beyond the normal call of duty for any undergraduate, to make this happen."

When Cava put out a call to his research group to find people who would be willing to work on this new discovery, he found that Slusky was very interested in the research. Along with other members in Cava's lab, she worked on what Cava called an "exciting, fast paced research topic."

Slusky said the maximum temperature at which superconductivity will occur in a material is called the critical temperature. Scientists are exploring different compounds, trying to find those with the highest possible critical temperatures, Slusky said.

Most research efforts have been focused on ceramic compounds, Slusky said. Recently, though, researchers found that a composite of magnesium and boron, two metals, is a superconductor at extremely low temperatures.

The finding was noteworthy because scientists had not been focusing on the possibility that metallic composites without ceramic content might make good high-temperature superconductors.

Slusky explained that since more is known about superconductivity in metallic compounds than about superconductivity in other materials, the scientific community is eager to investigate metallic superconductors.

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Slusky, whose original thesis topic was in another area of chemistry, said she will expand her thesis to include the new research. After graduation, she plans to study Judaism for a few years and then attend graduate school in chemistry. She said she eventually wants to teach and conduct research in an academic setting.