NSF sends UD grad student to Pakistan to study nanomagnetism

Colin Baker (right), a UD graduate student in materials science and engineering, and his adviser Ismat Shah, professor of physics and materials science

3:27 p.m., June 9, 2004--Colin Baker expected angry protestors and anti-American slogans when he set off for Pakistan to study nanomagnetism at Quaid E Azam University.

Instead, 7,000 miles from Newark, Baker found an English-speaking physics department that used the same books he used at UD. Another surprise: Many of the students were women.

The mirror image stops there. Equipment costing upwards of $150,000 is commonplace for Baker, a UD graduate student in materials science and engineering, and his adviser Ismat Shah, professor of physics and materials science. Their Pakistani research partner, Kurshid Hasanain, often makes the same equipment by hand, just as Shah did when he worked in his native Pakistan.

“It gives you a chance to really learn what’s going on because instead of just pushing a button and using some software on a computer, you know what’s happening because you built the thing,’’ Baker said.

Shah, who said he remembers working in a Pakistani lab where five or six scientists shared a single set of wrenches, was eager to form a research partnership with Hasanain, an expert in nanomagnetism—the magnetism of very small things.

The three scientists are now in the second year of a three-year National Science Foundation grant that pays for the scientists’ travel.

They have published several scientific papers that could lead to changes in the way electronic media is stored. Because very small items respond to magnetic forces instantaneously, the scientists believe they could make storage and retrieval faster.

Shah says the majority of NSF travel grants involving developing nations seldom have a true student exchange. Students from developing nations usually come to the U.S. to work in American labs, but he said he thought it was important for him and Baker to travel to Pakistan to learn from Hasanain. Shah said he also thought it was important for Baker to experience what scientific work is like in other countries.

On his recent trip to Pakistan, Baker had a laundry list of new experiences.

“One night we went to a place where there were thousands of people, and I know I was the only Westerner,” he said. “At the university there, I was shown how to construct a vibrating sample magnatometer that measures magnetic properties of materials,’’ Baker said. “That would cost about $150,000 here.’’

Shah said he is hoping to establish partnerships with scientists in other developing countries such as Uzbekistan and Armenia.

Article by Kathy Canavan
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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