According to a US scholar now working in Japan’s National Institute of Material Science (NIMS) Joel Henzie, scientists are learning how to control and utilize light in ways never thought previously. “Perhaps in 20 years we may even have invisibility clothes”, says Henzie.
Last week he visited KTU Santaka Valley and was introduced to the work of its institutes and laboratories. Henzie and the scientists from Institute of Materials Science discussed further implementation of the first bilateral project between Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and NIMS.
What is the purpose of your visit at KTU?
Japan has been setting up these bilateral collaborations with multiple countries. To my knowledge, this is the first time that this kind of collaboration has been initiated with Lithuania, and KTU in particular.
Together with KTU Institute of Materials Science we are implementing a project called “Plasmonic properties of silver nanoparticles assembled clusters (PLAS)”. I have multiple missions for this project: do research with KTU scientists, meet more Lithuanian researchers, and get to know the Lithuanian research community, present the work of NIMS and establish more collaborations.
How would you explain materials science to a person who has never heard of it before?
Compared to chemistry or biology disciplines, which have been there for ages, materials science is a relatively new subject, but much of it is derived from the field of metallurgy. For centuries people tested various metals and tried to figure out how to make them stronger or more conductive. Materials science started by trying to understand these most functional materials in modern society (i.e. metal, concrete, glass). But these days we are focused on designing new materials with extraordinary properties.
Northwestern University, the university where I got my PhD, was the first higher education institution in the world to establish a Materials Science department. The department is not that old, it started in the 1950s.
Now materials science is about using chemistry, physics, and engineering to design materials “from the bottom up”. This means we are trying to assemble materials starting at the atomic scale, and extending this level of control to design the devices and other objects that you can see, touch and hold in your hands.
How can materials science be applied in business?
I am not a businessman but I think in business you have an advantage if you can make something that is better and less expensive (both if you are lucky) than your competitor.
Much of the goal of materials science is to make better, less expensive materials but we are also trying to make new kinds of materials that will enable the creation of whole new industries.
A good example of this is fibre optic cables. Centuries of research on glass and various materials were necessary to make these tiny glass tubes that can transmit light (i.e. information) around the world. Without fibre optics there would be no Internet as we know it today, because the bandwidth of copper wires too small, hence there would be no Internet companies.
I think a good businessperson should know something about materials science if they want to be on the cutting edge of technology, and make a big and hopefully positive impact in the world.
What new materials were invented in the last ten-twenty years?
Perhaps one of the “hottest” materials right now is graphene, which is just an atomic layer of carbon. It has very unusual electrical properties, it’s very thin and very strong. Today people are trying to use graphene to make transistors.
The other very “hot” material right now is organic perovskites, which is a crystal typically composed of a mixture of lead, methylamine, and iodine.
Today most of the solar cells are made of silicon. Even those solar panels that we can see on people’s roofs. It took 50 to 60 years of research for us to create silicon solar cells that could achieve an efficiency of 20 per cent. With perovskite solar cells it took about 5 years to reach that same mark. Of course the knowledge and tools we used to develop silicon were critical to the development of these organic perovskites, but it is outstanding nonetheless.
Before moving to Japan and working at NIMS, you’ve been a postdoctoral researcher at The University of California. How did your career path take a turn towards Japan?
I’d known about NIMS and its specialization in materials science since I finished graduate school. It’s a great research institute where I can focus on purely doing research. The instrumentation there is fantastic, including electron microscopes which is important to me because I use them to image the atomic structures of materials.
Every place has its strengths, and Japan is a country that has a lot of great scientific instrumentation available to almost anyone. It also helps that the ratio of modern and advanced instrumentation to the number of researchers is more balanced so it doesn’t take much time to get access.
You are working at NIMS as an independent scientist. What does it mean for a scholar to be independent in his work?
Independent professors don’t work “underneath” anybody, so they have a level of freedom to do what they choose in order to get funding for their scientific projects. I am independent in a sense that I can do research that I want, but I also need to show good results in order to get publications and grants. Independent scientist is also a leader of a research group.
Compared to other scholars working at NIMS I have a rather small research group which is very international. I am working together with French, Iranian, Chinese, Indian postdoctoral researchers.
How would you describe your experience as an independent scientist at NIMS?
Working at NIMS is not just about creating new materials or getting patents. One of the primary goals is teaching, mentoring students and giving them the critical skillset for the future.
We have a paid internship at NIMS for maximum of 90 days that KTU students are welcome to apply for. The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) also offers post-doctoral research fellowships for the period of 1-2 years. The Japanese government wants people from all over the world to come to Japan and do research.
I like that scientists tend to be very open-minded. However, students have to remember that being a scientist often means that you have to get used to being wrong a lot. What I mean is that Nature is difficult to understand, and you need a lot of humility to study it. From Nature there is always something new to learn.
What would you say separates NIMS from other similar establishments in the world?
NIMS scientists work on a wide variety of materials. For example some NIMS scientists are developing new high temperature superconducting materials that conduct electricity without resistance. NIMS also has the strongest nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscope in the world. NMR is a lot like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, which is used to image the body in order to find tumours, for example. But in NMR we use these magnets to find out the structure of molecules.
Additionally, in my research institute called MANA (short for International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics) we are learning how to design materials “from the bottom up”. In some sense our focus is on designing materials and devices like an architect would design a building.
In comparison to NIMS, what do you think of KTU Santaka Valley that you have recently visited?
It’s my first time visiting Lithuania and Kaunas in particular. KTU Santaka Valley made a strong first impression and I think it’s a very modern facility with fantastic instrumentation and smart people. Professor Sigitas Tamulevicius was a great host who took extraordinary care in organizing my visit, and his staff was very knowledgeable and work really hard. It certainly looks like a great place to do research.
How is this cooperation with KTU going to work in the future?
Our research with the Institute of Materials Science is going really well so far. Our goals is to continue working together as effectively and closely as possible in order to achieve good results.
Next year when I come back to Lithuania I will also bring couple of my Japanese colleagues from NIMS. This collaboration grant for me is primarily a travel grant, so I could meet new people, share knowledge, learn new things and establish even more collaborations between NIMS and KTU.
The research that you’re doing is related to nanocrystals. What are you trying to achieve?
First we are trying to make nanocrystals with different shapes. We are trying to build larger materials using nanocrystals – the nanocrystals are our “building blocks” – so controlling their shape and size is really important.
One of my initial applications for these nanocrystals was as biosensors. Back then the US army was interested in developing a sensor to detect chemicals, and even potential biological warfare agents like anthrax. But there are far more conventional uses for these sensors. We can measure and detect certain proteins in the blood, and this would be useful for various medical applications.
What are some of your career goals as a researcher?
One of the things that I’ve been working on for about 10 years is in the field of metamaterials. We’re trying to design metal nanoparticles and small structures that can control light. For example, scientists can now make new kinds of optical lenses that are flat instead of curved. This is important because curved lenses have a lot of undesirable properties that make them less accurate.
Visual perception is dependent on how the light strikes our eyes. With a normal material, light is typically absorbed or reflected. But a so-called “metamaterial” is designed so that light can be guided and even shaped by it.
The field of metamaterials is trying to make better solar cells and devices that can manipulate light to transmit information. One of the more unusual applications in this field that draws a lot of attention is the “cloaking device.” Some scientists are trying to design metamaterials that can guide light around an object, so the object becomes essentially invisible. Will we eventually have invisibility clothes like in science fiction? Maybe… the field of metamaterials shows that it might be possible.
