PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 7, Oct. 6, 2005

University shows Tulane physicist ‘the silver lining’

By Rick Kubetz
Office of Engineering Communications

Click photo to enlarge Photo by Rick Kubetz Continuing research Tulane University physics professor Zhiqiang Mao, right, and his graduate assistant, Meng Zhou, will use the optical floating zone furnace at the Materials Science Laboratory to continue their research until they can return to New Orleans next year.

Like many people aware of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Myron Salamon, a physics professor and associate dean in the College of Engineering at Illinois, wondered what he could do to help.

“My first thought was to send a check to the Clinton-Bush fund, and I did that,” Salamon said. “But then I started to think that there was something more we could do for our colleagues who would certainly be affected by the disaster.”

Two weeks later, at Salamon’s invitation, Zhiqiang Mao, a professor of physics at Tulane University, and his family arrived in Champaign-Urbana. Although they had never met, Salamon knew Mao’s work. They are part of a small group of scientists studying the fundamental physical properties of a family of transition-metal oxides based on the element ruthenium. Salamon is one of several UI researchers who have used samples grown by Mao.

“We know what Dr. Mao does; we read his papers,” Salamon said. “We compete with him. I thought, ‘If we can’t beat him, we’ll bring him up here.’ It seemed natural, if he came here and we had the equipment he needed, we would all benefit from it.”

Mao is an expert at growing very high-quality crystals, using an optical floating zone furnace. Illinois is one of a half-dozen places in the country with such a furnace, which focuses a beam of light on a target material to melt it and form a crystal. The furnace provides the necessary super-clean environment for growing the compounds.

“This is the ideal place for me,” Mao said. “If I couldn’t stay here to continue my work, it would have a huge impact on my research.”

As news of the hurricane’s devastation deepened, Salamon thought of Mao and tried to e-mail him to offer him a place to work. Although he couldn’t reach Mao by e-mail, he eventually tracked him down through Mao’s former adviser, Ying Liu, at Penn State.

One day before the storm hit, Mao had left his home in Metairie, La., with his wife, Yu Wang, and their 10-year-old daughter, Alice. Because of the heavy traffic out of New Orleans, the usual five-hour trip to Houston took 15 hours. Once there, they took up temporary residence with a friend, who also took in one of Mao’s graduate students and his family, plus another friend and his family – a total of 11 people sharing a one-bedroom apartment.

A week later, Mao and his family flew to North Carolina to stay with relatives and contemplate their future. He received offers to work at universities in Japan, the United Kingdom and at Florida State University. He said he wanted to stay in the U.S. but that Florida State couldn’t accommodate his graduate students.

Once they connected, Mao gladly accepted Salamon’s invitation to come to Illinois, which has taken in about 60 students displaced by the hurricane. Even though he will not have access to his samples or data from his Tulane laboratory for some time, Mao expects to be back in business shortly, and he expects his graduate students to join him on campus very soon.

The university is providing free housing to Mao and his two graduate students at Orchard Downs as well as an office, use of the furnace in the Materials Science Laboratory, and a modest amount of supplies, Salamon said. Tulane is still paying his salary.

In addition to the university’s assistance, the local chapter of the American Red Cross helped Mao and his wife get prescription refills and it provided hepatitis shots, vouchers for clothing, a night in a hotel, and some supplies as soon as they arrived. It also helped them enroll their daughter in school.

“We didn’t expect to receive so much help,” Mao said. He noted that Alice is already attending Urbana’s King Elementary School, which has a Chinese language program. The family speaks Chinese at home, but Alice will be able to work on her reading and writing skills at King, he said.

Mao has also received some good news from home. A friend checked on his house in Metairie and found only minor water damage from a leak, but no flooding. And a backyard tree that was toppled by the hurricane missed the house.

“My lab is probably OK,” he added. “The damage may be very minimal. My lab is on the fifth floor, so it shouldn’t be flooded.”

“The research atmosphere here is wonderful, just wonderful,” Mao stated enthusiastically. “I feel I’m so lucky. My house is undamaged. I’ve received much help from the University of Illinois, Professor Salamon, and the community. I really appreciate everything.”

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