3 Questions: Frances Ross on witnessing nanostructure formation
Professor Frances Ross joined the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering this fall after a career of developing techniques that probe materials reactions while they take place. Formerly with the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, Ross brings to MIT her expertise in applying transmission electron microscopy to understand how nanostructures form in real time and using the data from such movies to develop new structures and growth pathways. She addressed the MIT Materials Research Laboratory Materials Day Symposium “Materials Research at the Nanoscale” on Oct. 10. Q: What insights do we gain from observing nanoscale crystal structures forming in real-time that were missed when observation was limited to analyzing structures only after their formation? A: Recording a movie of something growing, rather than images before and after growth, has many exciting advantages. The movie gives us a continuous view of a process, which shows the full evolution....