The Materials Universe Podcast: Episode 5

[00:00:00] Abbey Stanzione: Welcome to the Materials Universe podcast, a podcast where we will explore the world of materials science and how it shapes our lives. My name is Abby Stanzione and I will be your host this season. Join me as I interview researchers from the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials at UT Austin.

Hello and welcome. You’re listening to the Materials Universe podcast. I’m your host, Abbey Stanzione. Today with me, I have Dr. Deji Akinwande, a professor in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a faculty investigator in IRG2.

Welcome, Dr. Akinwande.

[00:00:39] Deji Akinwande: Yes. Thank you for inviting me to this podcast.

[00:00:42] Abbey Stanzione: Of course. I’m excited to have you be a guest. I’ll start off with my usual first question. How did you come to be here at UT Austin today?

[00:00:50] Deji Akinwande: My pathway, I suppose, is more or less quite straightforward. I went to undergrad at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, studied engineering and applied physics, and did an integrated bachelor’s and master’s program.

And afterwards, I went to work in industry, for a couple of years, about four years in Northern California. And at that time, Agilent Technologies, which became Keysight. And then I also did one year at a startup company, Xtreme Spectrum, which was then acquired by, Motorola, and then became part of Freescale.

So after that, period in the industry, my original desire that I had as an undergrad to pursue a Ph. D. was rekindled, and then I went to Stanford University to study electrical engineering in new areas of material science. And, I suppose that was a pretty successful period of my educational journey.

And when I was graduating, I was advised that I could be competitive to secure a faculty job. So as, as based on this advice and my, interest, I applied and, wanted to be in a state with nice weather. I didn’t want to go back to the cold weather of, of the East Coast or the Midwest, like Cleveland, where I graduated with my bachelor.

So I mostly restricted my, interest. to, to Texas and, and similar states, with, pretty warm weather. And that is how I ended up, at the university of Texas, in 20, 2010.

[00:02:57] Abbey Stanzione: Yeah, I can definitely relate to the warm weather search. When I finished my master’s degree, I took a look at the states that either had equal to or less snow than my home state.

So I definitely understand following the warm weather. That’s a really interesting journey for you to end up here at UT. Did you always want to study electrical engineering?

[00:03:17] Deji Akinwande: Yeah, in high school. I did high school in Nigeria. it was quite, I would say, popular that many students aspired to study electronics because it seemed like it was becoming more and more clear that electronics and electronic materials for electronics is really a growing, rapidly growing aspect for future technology.

And so I and others, had, you know, this kind of an Ambition to, to study electrical engineering and, and, and computer, science. but actually when I started at, Case Western Reserve University, I also had a very strong interest, to be an adventurer and, and go to space. So I actually started as a aerospace engineer.

because that is the path, at least at that time, to go to space. You had to be an aeronautical engineer, but, and my advisor there was actually, a backup astronaut for NASA. And so I really enjoyed my time as an aerospace major, but I think I concluded within the first year that, it.

There was more than one way to go to space, and nowadays you can see that there’s even, businesses developing commercial flights to go to space. So I switched to electrical, and computer engineering, where I had more, I would say, background training and more. skill, and more success in the classroom and, then deferred my ambition to go to space until a time in which we can have, this commercial flights.

[00:05:17] Abbey Stanzione: So you mentioned that you attended high school in Nigeria. So I was wondering if you could tell us, a little bit about what that transition was like for you, you know, leaving your home to come to the U. S. to study.

[00:05:28] Deji Akinwande: Well, no doubt, that was quite a transition and a challenging period. I think, it’s, quite a common challenge for many groups of students coming to America.

And I share that same challenge at that time. So the challenges It’s just a challenge just to go from, from high school to college is already a challenge. And then when you had the fact that you’re changing country, you’re changing cultures, you presumably may not have a single friend, in during this transition, your family is far away.

Then that. Can compound the challenges, significantly, but at the same time is also an opportunity, isn’t it? you know, as we know, change is necessary for growth and, progress. So this change allowed me to become, I would say, fully independent. there’s an African saying that a lion cub must eventually fend for himself or herself completely.

And so I think this. This transition allowed me to, I would say, become 100 percent responsible, for myself at the young age of 17 and, to completely fend for myself, as a college student, in, you know, in Cleveland. So it’s, it’s, it’s altogether challenging, but it’s an opportunity that I embrace.

And I would say more or less, it seems like I navigated it quite successfully.

[00:07:08] Abbey Stanzione: Yeah, I would say so. I think your resume, your experience, your input in the field, it definitely speaks for itself. I can’t imagine leaving my family, especially at 17. Like you said, that transition is already difficult enough.

So, kudos to you for making that leap, and I’m glad it’s worked out well for you. And, you know, you brought up a great point. There are many people who come to the U. S. to further their education, and we see this within the CDC and MERSA. You know, there are a lot of students from all over the world who are part of the Center, and so I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about what your recruitment process is for your group, and how your experience as an international student has shaped it.

[00:07:47] Deji Akinwande: Yeah. So I think international students, bring a certain dimension to research. generally, I would say from my experience so far, international students, from different, backgrounds, generally extremely motivated, not only because obviously they’re pursuing an advanced degree, but, they carry to some extent, the burden to To, to, to their family, to contribute and maybe even change the economic, balance of their family, if they are successful.

So there are many dimensions that add up to their motivation, to be successful. And so I, you know, in general, recruit outstanding students, both domestic and international. And for the international students, since, You know, many students come in from, let’s say, different parts of the world. I may not be well acquainted with those parts.

It’s quite normal that I should do some kind of a virtual interview just to become more acquainted with the person and their background. And in some occasions, I ask my existing students to help me, especially if they’re from the same country. to help me interview potential, applicants and, give me feedback, with regards to their training and suitability for the research that we do, in my group, if they were to come, to UT Austin as a PhD student.

So I really, value the advice that, my students provide in this regard. they certainly do help me also recruit international students. So this is, I would say more or less what, also many professors generally do, these days. I also, when I give talks at different institutions, different universities all over the world, I often look out for students that are outstanding at those universities Institutions and and and get local recommendation on site.

I talked to them about the research that I am doing the centers that we have a UT Austin for research and if they were interested, they can speak to me right there. And in this manner, I have recruited several students, from that I met, locally abroad when I was, giving, seminars when, the students all arrive.

I have a mix of both domestic students and international students. I wish I could say I do quite a lot to foster, kind of a community, but, I would have to give actually maybe my students. students more, the credit for fostering community. They organize social events and summer events and summer outings and group events.

So I think the community building, a lot of my students have been involved in really fostering this so that everybody can connect and can network. And I also, I would say, you know, rely on the centers. like the MRSEC, for example, to also provide this kind of community building to a broader group of students, that my students can participate in.

So I really appreciate and, and, and welcome this as well.

[00:11:27] Abbey Stanzione: Yeah, that’s a great approach to recruitment. I’m glad to hear that your students have benefited from being part of the center. I know you’ve been a part of not just the MRSEC, but the NASENT and other large scale research centers at UT. In addition to creating this community for your students, how do you think your involvement has impacted your group, and how has it impacted your view on broadening participation?

[00:11:50] Deji Akinwande: Yeah. So, this centers have been a remarkable contribution to my entire research and my group. I’ve been, as you mentioned, I’ve been in several centers ice and I still am. And I think this centers have many dimensions that the, add or amplify to my group. One of them is, of course, the scientific collaboration, just having access to a broader range of collaborators, that bring skills and capability that I don’t have.

And so, many of our recent research and very successful research has been an outcome of this kind of scientific collaboration with other, faculty and scholars, within the centers. And, in the case of my students, that’s also been a very fruitful, experience. dimension to their scholarship and also their networking.

for example, some of the students that know each other from these centers have met and have been at social events. when they graduate, They are able to reach out to this, to center alumni that now have jobs, let’s in the industry. And then this center alumni have helped them, to secure jobs or giving them advice as to how to negotiate the process of securing a job in their companies and, and giving them recommendations.

So from a career point of view, it has been, it’s, it has been a very wonderful, aspect, to have this kind of center. Center networking for the students. I have also been very fortunate to have engaged in a variety of REU research experience for undergraduates, high school research experience, and research experience for teachers.

So I’ve, I’ve met, several teachers within this. center programs, and I’ve been invited to come to, to their schools, high schools, and give talks and meet students. one of them was Maino New Tech, where I was really amazed by what they were doing. And, you know, another place, UT San Antonio, we had collaborations there.

The students did very research during the research experience for undergraduates. And I ended up recruiting, the student from UT San Antonio. So then this kind of center, experiences provide also an opportunity for us to recruit, PhD graduate students, afterwards. And so in this regard, altogether, I would say the center, You know, provides, I would say a greater landscape that broadens, diversity and, retention activities because it’s one thing is to bring in students from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds, and the other challenge is to to retain them in ensuring that they have a community locally and that they feel, they can be successful year on campus at UT Austin.

[00:15:11] Abbey Stanzione: Yeah, I think that’s great. And those programs really do have an amazing impact on student retention and student interest. And it is really rewarding to watch those students grow throughout the summer and throughout the academic year. How would you describe your advising style or your advising philosophy?

You know, when working with the summer program participants, but also within your group members and your students in the classes you teach.

[00:15:35] Deji Akinwande: Yeah. So teaching and advising, I would say, perhaps, there’s a distinction in this regard. but also similarities, in general, I’m kind of a hands off person, because to some extent that’s how I was raised.

And so, I certainly encourage, my students, to participate. Pursue their interest to pursue their scholarship and to take leadership of, of their PhD, research. so I’m not a very, day to day, kind of, so called expert. helicopter figure. So I think that space is very important for students to become self responsible and to develop leadership skills.

And this includes, programs that we’re involved in, such as the, you know, REUs or the high school research and teaching experience. My students that sign up for this, I encourage them to also take leadership of these opportunities, which is very important for their career. so that would, I would say that’s basically, my philosophy as a research advisor.

in terms of teaching, it’s somewhat similar. I like to tell my students in the classroom that ultimately, I am a guide, to success. You know, in their pursuit of knowledge. I myself don’t contain all of the knowledge and nobody does. And so they have to, at the same time, take responsibility for their education and for their journey.

I can guide them with my experience and point them out to point to them the different, advantages and disadvantages of different paths they may want to take, or different study habits, or different, material that they’re learning, or different techniques of solving problems, but at the end of the day, they have to, go on that journey, and pursue that journey as an individual.

so I really emphasize that, You know, at the university, it’s a college environment. it is not a high school or middle school. And so everybody is an adult and should therefore be responsible for their education. In the same vein, I Emphasize, especially also to my graduate class, this known theory of positive mindset.

If you want to learn anything, if you want to advance your knowledge, the first thing is to have a positive mindset, which is a theory that if you, you, You are open to learning and that you believe that you can learn, you have, you have a high, chance to actually learn the material as opposed to a fixed mindset or negative mindset where you already have, thoughts that you are not going to be able to learn the material.

So then it defeats all your effort to learn. I learned this from, the inventor of the theory, Professor Carol Dweck, when I was a student at Stanford, and I was absolutely blown away, by this thinking. and so altogether, I preach this mindset theory, and I also emphasize that I am, at the end of the day, as it’s said in the Matrix, I am a guide, and, everybody, has to then pursue their own journey.

To acquire the knowledge and skills that they, are interested in.

[00:19:35] Abbey Stanzione: Yeah. I like that a lot. I think, you know, for me, I feel like if I put out a positive energy into the day, I find that at the end of the day, it often has been a good day. So I can see how a positive mindset really does apply not only to education and your experience in the classroom and out of the classroom, but also to But to your everyday personal lives as well, speaking of personal lives, I was wondering if you could talk about your thoughts on work life balance, as we’ve talked about it already.

You are very involved in various research centers and you travel for speaking engagements. So how do you balance your work with your life? Does it ever blend?

[00:20:15] Deji Akinwande: Yes, that is a question, I suppose it’s natural that, many professionals get, in, in, during the course of their career, and my thinking on this is that work life, balance, is, it’s really a journey.

it’s, it’s not a, there’s no destination, in the sense that, you know, just like, personal improvement or, learning a skill or, or technique. That’s always a work in progress. I have been doing, you know, I’ve been doing swimming for a couple of years and doing, you know, other extracurriculars like skiing and dancing.

I don’t think anybody would say, Oh, okay. I’ve reached the pinnacle of this, activity. you know, because it’s always a work in progress. You can always improve and you can always get better at that activity. So that’s the same way I think of walk, life balance. It’s a journey. And, the question then is, is there more balance?

at this point in time compared to maybe in the past, so I’ve thought about this and I’ve been, you know, in the beginning, my work life balance, you know, of course, as a graduate student, my work life balance was, you know, at least for me, it was really, really poor because I had a lot to do and as an early, assistant professor, you know, again, my work life balance was you know, very, very poor, to be quite frank, as I was also raising a family, and, you know, you know, starting this career to, to secure tenure.

So I’ve reached a point in which I now think of it, you know, it’s a journey. And at the end of the day, I phrase it in a different way in which instead of work life balance, where there’s something seems to be a tension between work and life. I view it now as work life integration, where just the change of the word, replaces this tension with coexistence.

and so for example, when I go. With my son, we can do some things together and also do some work together. He’s doing his homework. We can go to a cafe or a space and he can play, he can do some homework. I can also, you know, complete some, you know, tasks that I have on my plate and we can do this together as a family and also do other things, together as well.

So I, I tend to view it now and, you know, as a work life. Integration, so that it removes this tension that exists in this phrase of work life balance.

[00:23:02] Abbey Stanzione: That’s a really interesting way to think about this and a cool way to approach it. I have memories from my childhood of working on homework alongside my parents.

Sometimes they were helping me, but sometimes they were doing something else. And even now to this day, with the option to work remotely, I’ve gone to my parents, to work and, my dad works from home, so sometimes we work from home together, and to sit at the table and spend time in the same space, and that’s, I, I just find that it’s really nice to be able to do that.

So one of the things I wanted to talk about that’s sort of in the space is your sabbaticals. I don’t know if sabbaticals are something that all of our listeners are familiar with. So I’d love to take a chance to talk about what that is and how you spend your time away from the university.

[00:23:50] Deji Akinwande: Yeah, sabbatical, I suppose it’s becoming more and more.

Common now in other careers, it’s traditionally a benefit that is standard in, you know, for example, academic careers, or if you are a clergy, in religious, careers, and you also have this concept of a sabbatical. And the, the history of this idea or this benefit is that after you’ve spent a number of years.

In your job, you have a period of time where you can, explore other, aspects or new ideas. so in academics, the period of a sabbatical is to, reflect and try to, explore new ideas for research, for teaching, for scholarship, which is difficult to do. if you’re just doing your day to day job, year to year.

and so this benefit is often, available after five or six years of continuous, work in the, in the field and at your institution. And so I have taken two sabbaticals till now, because I’ve been at UT Austin for, you know, about 14 years. So every six or seven years, I’ve had the opportunity to take a sabbatical.

And these sabbaticals have been very, very productive. My first sabbatical, I spent some time in Italy and in Cambridge, and my family came with me. And so my son enjoyed that as well. So again, that’s another example of work life integration. and that was a period in which, I was able to, initiate new ideas and those ideas turned out to be successful.

So, the graphene, we, we do some work with graphene tattoos. We do some work on so called atom bristos or atomic memory devices. And so some of those ideas were outcomes, of those sabbatical periods in which I said, okay, let me think about new. ideas, for research that, I was not able to do, you know, just walking day to day, year to year at the job.

So I would argue that every profession should have this benefit so that every, employee, can, have an opportunity to explore new ideas that could benefit their career development and ultimately benefit their institution as well.

[00:26:36] Abbey Stanzione: What a great opportunity to reflect on new ideas for your research and to be able to bring your family along is really awesome.

I think now is a great time to dive further into your research. You just mentioned the graphing tattoos and I’ve seen a lot of publications around this work recently. Can you tell me a bit more about what that is and what some of the impacts are for the world and especially in medicine?

[00:27:00] Deji Akinwande: Yeah, Graphene Tattoo is a device that falls under the category of wearable electronics.

So, nowadays, this wearable electronics, for example, you have, you know, the smartwatch, you have a variety of smart patches or smart bandages and whatnot. And all of this, wearable devices is, to some extent to monitor the vital signals coming from the human body. And then the idea is, of course, by being able to monitor your vital signals and your health, you could improve, you know, your health prospects and prognosis and graphene tattoo, is one of the latest additions in terms of technology, for wearables in the sense that it is a tattoo on the skin.

unlike. Ordinary tattoos, that, you could say permanent. This graphene tattoos are not permanent. So they last for a couple of days, maybe up to five days. So they’re a temporary platform, for monitoring vital signs. And these vital signs could be your body, skin temperature, a variety of electrophysiological, electrical signals that come from the body.

And your blood pressure, for example, and, maybe I should say a few words about blood pressure. blood pressure is a biomarker for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension. Indeed, this is the leading cause of mortality in Texas, in the United States and in the world. It’s, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases is.

a greater cause of death than cancers or any natural disaster, and any other, disease. And the tragedy about this, disease and mortality of many people losing loved ones is that this can be prevented. And the way to prevent it is by, regular monitoring of your blood pressure.

However, there is no, I’ll say effective technology today that provides this regular monitoring. You can buy some devices or you can go to the hospital and get a cough to measure your blood pressure, but that’s not a continuous day to day platform. So we have been working on this graphene tattoos and now related, monitoring devices to monitor blood pressure continuously so that users then will have access to it.

access to their blood pressure data, they can see what stresses them out, what elevates their, their blood pressure, and they can take ownership of their health by taking preventative measures. You know, if you, if you find out that going to this particular space, your blood pressure is always high, then that tells you that that may be a space you want to avoid.

Or you find out that eating this kind of food that’s, you know, you know, like, Gram and that is full of sodium, you know, significantly elevates your blood pressure. Then that, you know, is an opportunity for the users to avoid those kind of food. So we see a future in which computing technologies will be available in the form of this, sensors like that can acquire all your vital, you know, medical, health data, so called mobile health and empower the users to leave a more, I would say healthy lifestyle and, be more happy.

[00:30:52] Abbey Stanzione: That is really, really interesting to me because, I feel like I try to be very in tune with my body and what it’s trying to tell me. And I’ve had, you know, the Apple Watch since they came out. And while it’s great for encouraging me to move and not sit all day, it recently has fallen out of my favor for a while.

a number of reasons but mostly because the wearable smart ring technology seems to be able to provide more in depth features. So the idea of these graphene tattoos becoming available in hospitals but also in general day to day wear is really interesting to me. What would you say is a challenge around using these or is there a challenge that you’re seeing that your group’s been working on?

[00:31:37] Deji Akinwande: Indeed, there is a challenge, naturally, basically all research, topics, are full of challenges, and, the graphene tattoo is no exception to this. It has, several advantages, and one of the main challenges today is the integration with electronics, because the graphene tattoo is ultimately a biosensor.

It senses the signals from the human. body, the signals are very important. but once it senses that signal, that signal needs to be processed. That signal needs to be interpreted and that signal may need to be sent to, some other device like your smartphone and app on your smartphone or the cloud or your medical, primary care physician.

And so it needs some wireless connectivity. So bringing together all this computing and. information processing and energy to power it and connectivity so it can stream the data requires a full system integration. And so the graphene tattoo being made of a material that it’s atomically thin, it’s just, you know, the active material is just one atom thin of carbon.

It is currently very challenging to combine it with batteries for energy and a Bluetooth chip for wireless connectivity and, microcontroller for, computing and information processing. So this is a part of the challenges that require further research. So in order for this to become, I would say, a practical technology that users can, can have.

[00:33:23] Abbey Stanzione: That all does sound very challenging, and it sounds like it might be a little bit before I can order these for personal use. Let’s talk about another area that your group is working on that I’ve seen a few publications on. I’ve seen the Adam Rister’s in the news recently. Could you tell me a little bit about what that is?

[00:33:40] Deji Akinwande: Yeah, the Adam Rister, this is a jargon that we coined in, in, my lab, by my former student, and, it has to do with computing technology, computing technology today, computers, smartphones, smartwatches, all of these different platforms. I basically compose of two elements, two devices, you know, there’s the transistor and there’s the memory.

The memory sometimes now is called memristo. So this foundational, blocks, these two of them, transistor and memristo combined together is what makes computers and computing systems, for many, many industries and for many, for the broader society. So the atom restore is a version of the memory is.

It’s, we call it Atom Ristor because it’s made out of atomic materials and so it’s a unique category and it has the advantage that it could do the same functions that a memory does but at a smaller energy and at a faster time. This is very important because actually out of these two building blocks that I mentioned, transistor and memory, the most important today is more and more becoming the memory.

Many listeners may not be aware of this, but the fastest growing industry in terms of energy consumption in the world is the so called ICT technologies, information computing technologies. So think about, all of your cloud computing, all your, all of your smartphone, energy needs, all of your personal computing energy needs, all of the IOT internet of things that are deployed in many industries all over the world, all of the cloud servers and, remote.

data storage centers, data centers, all the energy needs of all of this electronics is. is within this so called ICT information computing technology. So this is the fastest growing in terms of energy consumption, and they’ve been growing exponentially. And with AI and all of this, it’s growing even faster.

So it’s predicted that within 15 years, just the energy consumption of, ICT alone is going to exceed the global, total global energy produced in the world. So this industry, this ICT is actually the most consequential for sustainability. If you talk about energy sustainability, you have to address this because it’s growing faster than everything else.

And that is because it pervades every other industry. So, This is why we do research on this elementary devices like atom restores and memory. We want to reduce the energy consumption at the individual elemental, level. So then you could have big savings in energy at the system level when you build, cloud server or smartphone or a computer, you could then have a much more energy efficient platform.

So this is where the atom resource come into play. in principle, they can consume significantly much less energy than the current, memory elements. ICT technologies. So if we are successful, and you know, we’re not the only ones working on this. There are many other researchers and electronic materials and devices working on this.

If we’re collectively successful, we can reduce this energy consumption of ICT and help to improve the sustainability outlook, at least from the electronic industry point of view.

[00:37:44] Abbey Stanzione: That’s really interesting. I hadn’t really thought about the sustainability aspect of information computing, and the impacts for the world with this work.

I feel like we’ve talked about this a little bit, but what are some of the challenges that you’re seeing in the scalability of the 2D materials? How’s your work, your research group working on that? What are you anticipating when it comes to overcoming these challenges?

[00:38:09] Deji Akinwande: Yes, many challenges related, are related with the materials aspect, for semiconductor technology, chips, for example, low temperature growth is of great interest, how can you grow this at, less than 400 degrees C so you can integrate it with silicon chips and combine the benefits of silicon with 2D materials for better, performance.

So that’s an active area. We’ve done some work on this and we continue to do some work on this. We have some grants, with collaborators also on this topic. For some other applications, low temperature is not enough. You actually need to go down to room temperature growth. So for example, applications in membranes, either for water filtration, for for batteries, for fuel cells, for air quality monitoring, you know, in those applications, room temperature growth is necessary, in order to integrate, with the, system, for this, studies.

And Many other applications, low cost integration and packaging is very critical, because, cost is, I would say a primary, criteria, for, you know, mass produced, application. So if you’re talking about, composites, for example, if you want to make, you know, I mentioned the example of cement, the material has to be available at low cost because Cement is price sensitive.

if you want to make, you know, water filtration systems, you know, you already have an existing technology that is low cost. So this new technology is using 2d materials have to be competitive at low cost. you want to make smart devices like wearable tattoos or wearable electronics. it has to be cost competitive with existing platforms today.

So, so you know, altogether, there’s, you know, low temperature, room temperature, low cost, aspects of this materials that, require further, further research in order to leave the lab and penetrate, the industry.

[00:40:34] Abbey Stanzione: I see. My understanding is that there isn’t a lot of collaboration with the academic space and with the industry 2D material space.

Would you say that’s true?

[00:40:45] Deji Akinwande: Yeah. What we’re seeing now is there’s more, there’s more and more collaboration, than in the past. And I think this is an awareness. of, the fact that this 2D materials, reaching a sort of maturity level, in certain regions, there are more collaboration than other regions.

So for example, in Europe, they have, I would say more collaboration between academics and industry. And that’s just because of the way the, European union has structured a lot of grants in America. We’re continuing to now see more and more of this collaborations with. For example, the Semiconductor Semiconductor Chips Act, this is really a vehicle to foster this kind of collaboration and translate these materials to practical technologies.

So I think for the foreseeable future, this trend will continue.

[00:41:40] Abbey Stanzione: That’s really great to hear. Your group does collaborate across academia. I know you’re part of the PRIM partnership working with Dr. Nicoletta Theodoropoulou, so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that collaboration some and any other research collaborations that your group is working with.

[00:42:00] Deji Akinwande: Yes, so we are very fortunate to have, several collaborators, within the MRSEC, within other centers, and including the PREM, as you mentioned, within the MRSEC, we’ve, we’ve collaborated with, different faculty on dif that bring in different expertise with Professor Jamie Warner on, on materials, characterization, using the facilities.

Advanced facilities that EE manages with Professor Koji Lai on, on, on, you know, surface probing techniques to better understand, material, properties at the structural level. With Professor Eju, who also has an advanced. surface probe that combines light and can also do topography and, electronic characterization simultaneously in the same platform and, and with other professors as well on the theory, theory aspects of materials so that, we can better understand, what we’re observing experimentally.

with. Professor Nicoletta, from Texas State, San Marcos, we’ve, we’ve actually been, discussing, collaboration for several years. And so the collaborate, collaboration there is to then focus on this, atom restores or mem restores. us looking at memory devices made from the materials that she’s producing.

So, she has a very unique capability. She can grow so called epitaxial materials that are, you know, crystalline and high quality process. and Semox. we can then take those materials and do, electronic devices from them to understand how they can be useful for this memory and memory store, especially as I mentioned for reducing the energy consumption of ICT technologies.

[00:44:10] Abbey Stanzione: That all sounds like great collaboration between research groups and hopefully that brings very fruitful results. We are running close to the end of our time here, but I do have one surprise question. If you could have lunch with one or two scientists that are either alive or dead, who would you pick and why?

[00:44:30] Deji Akinwande: Oh, that’s a very, very Tough question, because as you know, there are a lot of outstanding scientists and scholars over the centuries. I would probably pick someone that many listeners and even academics may not be acquainted with. And her name is Emma Noether. Emma Noether was a mathematician in the Early to mid 1900s, she started off in Germany and ended a career and, at a small college in, in the Midwest.

The name of the college has just skipped my mind. but she is considered one of the greatest mathematicians, even though she may not be widely known. And when she, she, for example, she is the one that addressed, research address, you know, foundational questions that people thought were beyond the reach of science.

Such as, for example, we talk about energy conservation. And if you ask, Scholars before Emma Noether, like if you ask Isaac Newton and all the eminent scholars, the answer to that question, like why is energy conserved in the universe? So why is it conserved in on earth? They will tell you that question is, not a physical question.

it’s, it’s, metaphysical question. It’s beyond the reach of physics and science, but Emma Nother came in and through a scholarship of on studies of symmetry, she, our scholarship was able to show that this sort of questions like why is energy conserved? Why is momentum conserved? why is time the way it is?

She was able to show that this questions can actually be addressed And I’ve been addressed, just by pure, science and pure physics. And when she passed away, I often speak, speak about her in my graduate class. When she passed away, I, Albert Einstein wrote the obituary for her in New York Times.

that she, discovered the spiritual laws of physics. And so I would very much, would love to have a word with her if I could travel back in time, because, I’m sure she was full of great ideas.

[00:47:12] Abbey Stanzione: Wow, that is a great answer. I’m not familiar with Emma Noether or her work, but she seems like a very interesting person to have lunch with.

I’ll have to look her up after we wrap, and I’ll add some informational links in our show notes for the listeners. I want to say thank you very much for sitting down to talk with me today, Dr. Akinwunde. It’s been very informative.

[00:47:33] Deji Akinwande: Yes. Thank you very much, Abby, for organizing and moderating this podcast.

Cheers.

[00:47:39] Abbey Stanzione: That’s all for today’s episode and for the first season of the Materials Universe podcast. Thank you for listening to my interesting conversation with Dr. Deji Akawande. We hope that you’ve enjoyed learning something new and hearing interesting research throughout this season. I want to say an extra special thank you to everyone who helped make this podcast happen behind the scenes.

I’ve enjoyed being your host. Stay tuned for something new next season. Please leave us a review and share this podcast with your friends or family. You can follow us on social media at texascdcm on Instagram and X. Thank you to the National Science Foundation and the University of Texas at Austin. And an additional thank you to the Lattice Audio Studio crew for their help with the production of this podcast.