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During their undergraduate career Myat Lin ’04 (Yangon, Myanmar), and Nathaniel Lonergan ’04 (Orwigsburg, Pa.), co-authored “Kinetic Monte Carlo Study of Submonolayer Heteroepitaxial Growth Comparing Cu/Ni and Pt/Ni on Ni (100).” The work has since been published in the Journal of Chemistry B.
Their work describes the findings of research they conducted with Kenneth Haug, associate professor of chemistry.
“We found some interesting differences in the patterns of atoms that self-organize on the surfaces during the growth process, which in turn governs the properties of the materials,” says Haug. “The Cu/Ni system is of especial interest as microelectronic circuit interconnections for magnetic devices and sensor systems, while the Pt/Ni system is of especial interest as a catalyst in experimental and industrial chemistry.”
Lonergan, a chemical engineer major and Marquis Scholar at Lafayette, worked with copper on nickel (Cu/Ni), while Lin worked with platinum on nickel (Pt/Ni).
“They did the majority of the computational experiments (all of this work deals with the computer simulation of metal surface growth), and all that I had to do was the final comparisons between the two different systems,” Haug adds.
A second-year graduate student in biophysics and computational biology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lin credits the experience of coauthoring a publication as being a key to success in graduate school.
“Lafayette provided me with excellent opportunities to do academic research as an undergraduate student,” he adds.
“My research experience in the college along with this publication has been very useful after I joined the graduate program. I am sure that it will continue to help me in the future since I would like to become a scientist.”
Before receiving a bachelors degree in biochemistry, Lin presented his platinum research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and conducted research over three summers with Robert Root, associate professor and head of mathematics.