Posted on October 3, 2002 at 2:23 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) physics graduate students will have the opportunity to work at a national laboratory with cutting edge technology in the government’s nuclear stockpile stewardship program thanks to a three-year, $579,785 grant from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

The grant establishes an academic alliance between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California and the Department of Physics at the UAB School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. UAB physics graduate students will spend the next three summers working at LLNL in the NNSA Stewardship Science Academic Alliances program. NNSA’s mission includes maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and overseeing national laboratories to maintain U.S. leadership in science and technology. 

“I’m excited about placing our graduate students at a national laboratory that has the latest state-of-the-art equipment that state universities cannot afford and is required in many advanced materials research projects,” said UAB Physics Professor and UAB Program Director Yogesh Vohra, Ph.D. “Physicists have always played a key role in national security and this project applies designer diamond anvil technology developed jointly by UAB and LLNL physicists to study properties of materials in support of the stewardship program.”

The UAB Department of Physics has been conducting research on man-made diamonds and their function in creating new materials. Vohra is an internationally known physicist and is an expert in the field of synthetic diamonds and diamond coatings. He patented a process in May 1997 that heats methane and hydrogen gases to temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Celsius to create synthetic diamonds as large as one-sixth of a carat, which are used in machining and other industrial applications.

The diamonds the students use will have built-in sensors that measure the physical properties of samples under high pressures and temperatures. The UAB graduate students will help fabricate the sensors at LLNL and place them into the diamonds and then encapsulate these sensors with the UAB-patented diamond growth process.

“This is the second generation of designer diamonds,” Vohra said. “We are going to try out some new ideas and change our fabrication process and heat samples with diamonds.”

In addition to experience, students also may get their foot into the door for a future career at a national laboratory, Vohra said.

“An important aspect of this partnership is that we are training the next generation of scientists who will work at national laboratories,” Vohra said. “National laboratories need trained scientists to maintain their outstanding capabilities and leadership in science and technology, so we need to have the next generation of scientists ready to take over these national security projects.”

UAB physics graduate Jeremy Reed Patterson, Ph.D., who worked with Vohra at UAB on man-made diamond projects, began working full time at LLNL on October 1.

“He will be involved in this project on LLNL’s end now,” Vohra said.