Exploring the world of condensed matter theory with Ali Ghorashi ’15

Power up your stereo receiver, game system, or desktop computer. Wait a few minutes, then place your hand on the top panel. 感受温暖? That’s waste heat, the result of the inefficient conduction of electricity. Multiply that effect by the billions of residential, 商业, 以及世界各地正在使用的工业设备和机器，你就会开始意识到有多少发电以热量的形式损失了，以及这些废热对全球变暖的影响. 

但别担心. Change is coming, and Ali Ghorashi ’15 is part of the team that’s on the case. 

Ali grew up in a household filled with science. 他记得，在上小学的时候，他花了好几个小时研读最新一期的《 科普 杂志. “I couldn’t understand a lot of the material at that age,他回忆道. “But I was definitely intrigued.” As Ali got older, his interest deepened. 他也开始更多地了解并欣赏父亲在南缅因大学(University of Southern Maine)担任机械工程教授的职业生涯. 

As a new ninth-grader in Waynflete’s 上学校, Ali became immersed in all things jazz (four years later, his senior project would focus on the transcription of jazz pieces). But science quickly became the center of his school experience. He distinguished himself by participating in the Science Bowl as a freshman, a year in which the team won an unexpected second place in the state competition. “This was the start of an exciting time for science at Waynflete,” science teacher Wendy Curtis recalls. “This crew of kids was fired up and ready 更多的.” 

Ali also joined the Science Olympiad team as a freshman. 无论你是对动手活动感兴趣，比如建造机器人手臂，还是对更具挑战性的测试形式的更抽象的工作感兴趣, there was something for everyone in these competitions. Ali helped the team secure the state title in his sophomore year. 在阿里上高中期间，这支球队参加了三次国家级比赛. 

Ali teamed up with Sophie Benson ’14 to participate in “MEST Up,” a STEM-focused TV show that ran for several years in Maine. The pair won the competition in Ali’s junior year. “We were starting to see that if we were willing to invest time, there could be significant results,他回忆道. “That was one of my big takeaways from my time at Waynflete.” 

Throughout his years in the 上学校, Ali was encouraged by teachers to try things out and take risks. “新巴黎人注册网站做了很多实验, and that was really because we were interested in just seeing what could happen,他说. “新巴黎人注册网站总是追求最高可能的结果，即使事情并不总是成功. We wanted to take risks rather than play it safe.老师温迪·柯蒂斯回忆说，阿里在实验室的桌子上驾驶火箭发动机推进的汽车，并试图用范德格拉夫发电机点亮一个荧光灯. 她对他的回忆可以用一个简单的描述来概括:他是一个实验家.

As the college application process began, Ali was challenged to choose one of two paths: mathematics or physics. 决定因素是他与宾夕法尼亚大学物理学教授的一系列对话. “与我交谈过的所有物理学家似乎都用一种比数学更自然的方式来解决问题,他说. “I later learned that in his undergraduate years, 我的导师对我当时脑子里想的同样的问题很感兴趣.”

阿里很快就沉浸在宾夕法尼亚大学的研究中，他希望这些研究能帮助他决定专攻哪个物理领域. 他加入了开发用于检测癌症的碳纳米管的团队，并参与了材料合成项目. While Ali eventually decided to pursue theoretical physics, 他还想确保他未来的研究仍然与材料科学和化学有关. “I wanted my work to be experimentally viable,他说. “I wanted there to be results that I could actually see in a lab.”

In 2018, 阿里是五名被选为获得罗伊和戴安娜瓦格洛斯挑战奖的宾夕法尼亚大学学生之一, whose goal is “to reward the very best, 动机, and advanced science students, and to challenge them to get the most from themselves.” In his senior year, he was recognized with the William E. Stephens Award for best graduating undergrad in physics. 

Ali also won a National Science Foundation Research Fellowship. 他把这次申请的成功归功于Waynflete对整个课程写作的强调. “能够将你的想法以书面形式传达给做出资金决定的人是至关重要的,他说. “我在Waynflete的写作经历帮助我提交了一份令人信服的申请.”

Feeling the call of academia, Ali began to consider schools where he could begin working toward his PhD. Though Harvard was eager to have him join its program, 他选择了麻省理工学院, 被该校和宾夕法尼亚大学之间紧密的工作联系所吸引. “这两个机构都在研究我感兴趣的问题，”阿里说. (Ali’s PhD advisor at MIT had, 事实上, completed his own PhD work at Penn with Ali’s former advisors.) 

Ali’s current research focuses on condensed matter theory, a field that has expanded significantly in recent years. 凝聚态系统与大量粒子一起工作，这些粒子的性质很难在实验室中测量, 例如材料由于温度变化而经历的转变(从固体到液体或从超导到非超导状态), 例如). 导电率, which is usually easy to measure, is actually difficult to predict theoretically with certain materials. 生物凝聚态物质研究可能包括预测分子如何在液体中扩散.

These problems have a massive number of “degrees of freedom.“新巴黎人注册网站面临的挑战是，要知道在合理的时间框架内解决问题时，可以忽略哪些自由度. 从历史上看, 这些简化帮助研究人员成功地预测了凝聚态现象. 但阿里最近参与了一项研究，该研究重新引入了以前被忽视的自由度，以更准确地研究凝聚态物质的行为.

实际意义

阿里特别感兴趣的是了解为什么有些材料是超导体, 它们在高温下几乎以零电阻传导电流. 他还试图了解为什么一些材料与电场发生强烈的非线性反应. “While we have observed these behaviors, we don’t have theories that explain them,他说. “It’s an exciting time right now, with many experiments underway. 新巴黎人注册网站的目标是将尽可能多的理论从“不确定”的范畴转移到“接近确定”的范畴.”

Ali’s research has practical implications in the area of energy consumption. 现代电子设备消耗的大部分能量都以热量的形式不必要地损失掉了. 如果材料可以被设计成更有效地导电，那么能量的损失就会更少. 更多的 efficient electronics means a reduced need for energy production, which could have a positive effect on climate change.

Ali is also working on projects related to quantum computing, an area that is rapidly moving from theory to practical design. 量子计算机使用的算法在经典计算机上运行时间太长. 阿里的团队正在帮助创建一个架构，量子计算机研究人员可以在这个架构上构建他们的设备. “This work will open a whole new spectrum of computing possibilities,他说.

Ali has recently begun settling into his new community in Cambridge. 花点时间回顾一下他在韦恩弗莱特的时光，以及那些让他走到今天的决定, he returned to the concept of risk-taking. In his undergraduate years, 阿里经常在不同的研究小组之间切换——尽管这些变化可能会给他的简历或研究生申请带来负面影响. “学生们经常担心，他们需要在本科阶段找到‘一个有凝聚力的目标’, 如果没有它, 他们将受到处罚. 没有人愿意雇用他们，他们也不会被研究生院录取，”他说. “这不是真的. Being an undergrad is all about figuring out what you want to do. 在青少年和二十多岁的时候尝试不同的事物比过早地陷入某件事要好得多. 在做了一些探索之前，年轻人不应该有压力去确定自己想做什么.”