ECE freshman finds her niche in the lab

During her junior year of high school, MaryAnn Tung participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. One of her judges knew of Professor David Ruzic, director of the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions, and recommended that Tung look into work at the center.

Tung, now a freshman in ECE, is working in a job that is helping to solidify her postgraduation plans.

For 10 to 15 hours each week, Tung works with Dr. Vijay Surla, a post-doctoral researcher in the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions (CPMI), measuring the Seebeck coefficient of lithium.

Lithium is a low Z-material that offers huge benefits in the tokomak environment and has potential as the future plasma facing component (PFC) material. Researchers at the center discovered that the thermoelectric effect of lithium, in conjunction with magnetic fields, causes a swirling motion. Tung helps to quantify the thermoelectric effect in the experiment she works with.

If one end of a wire is heated to a higher temperature compared to the other end, a voltage is produced. This effect is called the thermoelectric effect or Seebeck effect, named after its inventor. The Seebeck coefficient is the difference in voltage over the difference in temperature. At CPMI, Tung measures the Seebeck coefficient of Lithium.

For Tung, one of the most difficult parts of her jobs is making sure the data are correct.

“There are a lot of things that go wrong sometimes with the data collection,” she said. “It’s my job to make sure that the data are accurate.”

Initially, Surla showed Tung how the experiment should be set up and how to run it.

“A lot of it after that was just, when you’re there, something goes wrong, and so you have to figure out what goes wrong,” Tung said. “And if I don’t know what’s going wrong, then I go ask Vijay. He’s been really patient about showing me the different aspects of the experiment that can affect the Seebeck values.”

And Surla is impressed with Tung’s initiative.

“She’s really good,” he said. “I’m particularly impressed because she knows what to do, and she just takes the laptop and goes on her own. She doesn’t need my constant supervision.”

Before this job, Tung had not done much experimental lab work, but she is interested in how the lab functions.

“When I first got this job, I thought it wasn’t going to be very hard, but then I realized that there are all these things that can affect the accuracy of the Seebeck values,” Tung said. “It has kind of opened my eyes to how difficult it is to do an experiment properly and get accurate data.”

Although her current classes don’t have much overlap with her lab work, Tung sees this experience of running an experiment as something that will help her in the future. 

“I’m interested in the materials side of nanotechnology,” she said. “I’ve wanted to work in academia. This hasn’t really changed that. It has enforced what I wanted to do.”

Tung hopes to continue working through the summer and possibly into the fall, depending on her schedule. For other students who will be looking for research jobs, Tung suggests simply e-mailing professors to see if they have open positions.

“I feel like a lot of people are surprised when I say I just asked a professor if he had any positions, and I got a job that way,” Tung said. “I think, to a certain extent, that it might be easier than some people think it is to get a research job.”

A video shows Tung describing the work she does for CPMI.