Who is Liam Lambert? –A Quantum Physicist’s ponderings
William ‘Liam’ Lambert has won a Goldwater scholarship, one of the most prestigious prizes awarded to students for their academic excellence and commitment to research in the STEM disciplines. He is one of 211 recipients out of 1248 nationwide applicants this year. So, who is Liam Lambert? An aspiring physicist or a mathematician or an engineer? So, as all things in the quantum world goes, it is not either /or for Liam, it is all of the above defining him.
A double major in physics and math, Liam is strongly motivated by engineering. He started his work in Dr. Rama Bala’s nanoscience lab as a freshmen. In nearly two years of his work in the field of nanoscience, Liam has worn many hats. As an experimentalist, he has synthesized and characterized nanocrystals of maghemite and hematite under various crystal growth conditions. As a physical scientist, he has studied the crystallographic and magnetic properties of the nanocatalysts, where he studied the differences between topotactical and rapid aggregation schemes in nanocrystal growth. As an engineer, he designed and built a magnetometer like instrument to map the magnetic hysteresis of his nanocatalysts. He traveled to Thessaloniki, Greece in September 2017 along with Dr. Bala, to present his research findings at Euromat 2017, an international materials research conference. Now, as an applied mathematics student and an aspiring aerospace engineer, he is learning how to create lightweight structures using 3D printing and applying graph theory to improve the efficiency of 3D printing process under the mentorship of Dr. Karin Saoub. Liam plans to map the aerodynamics of 3D printed wing surfaces at Coastal Carolina University this summer. He will be mentored by Dr. Erin Hackett, Assistant Professor, Coastal and Marine Systems Science, and an alumna of Roanoke College.
Each of these roles have stemmed from Liam’s innate curiosity for research, creative problem solving abilities and motivation to pursue applications based research. Liam Lambert is a student-scholar, true to every word, and definitely worthy of the Goldwater Award. Congratulations, Liam!
