Popular Science names two professors to 'Brilliant 10' list

The scientists you're about to meet aren't famous. Yet.

Maria Chudnovsky GS '03 and Claire Gmachl have neither won the Nobel Prize nor penned a bestselling book, yet Popular Science magazine has named the two Princeton faculty members to its "Brilliant 10" list of young scientists.

"'Brilliant 10' is our way of bringing some of the brightest, most promising minds in science to a mainstream audience," Mark Jannot, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science, said. "This is a group of 10 people largely unfamiliar to most, but their work will change our lives."

For mathematician Maria Chudnovsky, 27, the award came as a surprise.

"A year ago, someone called me to find out more about my research," she said. "I must have put him to sleep, but a year later, he called me again and said 'Oh, we would like to do this article on you — you have been selected to [the Brilliant 10].'"

What merited Chudnovsky such an honor? Along with her adviser, Paul Seymour, Chudnovsky unlocked a major, mathematical 40-year-old riddle known as the perfect graph conjecture. The conjecture explains why some organizational problems, like constructing a cell phone network using the fewest transmitters or assigning teachers to various classrooms, are harder than others.

Popular Science credits Chudnovsky and her team as the first to prove this longstanding theory.

Russian-born Chudnovsky came to Princeton in 2000 to pursue graduate work after her education in Israel.

"I wanted to do my Ph.D. at a very good place and I was interested in combinatorics," Chudnovsky added, who received her doctorate last year. "At college in Israel, I had a very good combinatorics professor, and I liked math in high school, so graph theory was a natural choice for me."

"It's like solving a crossword puzzle all day long," she said.

Gmachl's research

Like Chudnovsky, Claire Gmachl has more than just a foreign accent and a tough last name. The associate professor of electrical engineering has earned a place on the list.

Peter Ramadge, chair of the department, is not surprised: "[Claire] has been on our radar screen for some time," he said.

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Before arriving on campus last year, Gmachl, 37, found fame at Bell Labs where she improved on the design of quantum cascade lasers — powerful, thumbnail-sized chips that can detect certain chemical substances. Gmachl first heard of the device when she graduated from college in her native Austria.

"They were the hot item on the market at the time," Gmachl said.

Since then, she has worked to produce more refined lasers, ones that can detect multiple chemicals in a single setting.

"Shining one of Gmachl's lasers across a highway" the article noted, "would create a detection system for noxious car emissions. Installed in an airport walkway, such a laser could sense trace amounts of explosives."

The promise of Gmachl's innovations has made her one upcoming scientist to watch.

Effects of winning

The "Brilliant 10" is no Nobel Prize, but the high expectations set by the award are enough to shake some minds. Asked whether the label of "most promising scientist" would help or hinder their research, both Chudnovsky and Gmachl remain unconvinced.

"I don't think it will help me, but I don't think it will give me any deep psychological problems either," Chudnovsky said.

"This won't affect me," echoed Gmachl. "I enjoy what I do and this award recognizes the work of me and my peers. [The high expectation] doesn't scare me. If anything, it means, oh gosh, I have to work harder."

Peter Ramadge said, "Magazines tend to run these 'top 10' lists, and most professors brush off these distinctions. It's nice to be recognized, but this is clearly not a serious academic report."

"It's the work of the popular press," he said.

What's next?

"Structural graph theory" declared Chudnovsky, referring to her latest challenge.

For Gmachl, the next step is improving her lasers: "Progress is good. We're working hard. There are new things to be learned, but, overall, it's an uphill battle."

Entering into its third year, the "Brilliant 10" feature of Popular Science has yet to produce any big names or breakthrough scientists in their fields.

In 2002, the magazine named Princeton mathematician Manjul Bhargava among its "Brilliant 10." For Bhargava and his fellow nominees, it has indeed been an "uphill battle" to achieve widespread public acceptance.

However, as one scientist discovered, brilliance can hardly be equated with a breakthrough.

"When the reporter [from Popular Science] was here," Gmachl said, "he said to me, 'I was expecting you all to be these crazy scientists, but in the end you're all just young hardworking people.'"

Chudnovsky and Gmachl, however, are not spending all their time on research. In the spring, students will have the opportunity to take classes with both professors. Chudnovsky is teaching a 300-level course on graph theory and Gmachl is teaching a new lab course to freshmen and sophomores. Entitled "New Eyes for the World — A Hands-on Optical Engineering Course," the course is aimed at non-science and non-engineering students.