November 2010

:: GREETING ::

Greetings, everyone! After a little time off, I'm back to work in a new postdoc position. This month's newsletter includes some great

links and information from Richard Martin, as well as a few congratulations to ASESMA members. Don't forget to send me a message about your new publications or other interesting news.

Cheers!

Alison

:: CONTENTS ::

1) Message from Richard Martin

2) Notable achievements

3) Journal article of the month

4) Resources for physics news and journal articles

:: MESSAGE FROM RICHARD MARTIN ::

ASESMA IN THE NEWS

I hope you all know about the commentary on ASESMA in Nature Physicswith your picture! I have posted the article on my web site "Material progress in Africa" about ASESMA:

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rmartin/www/ASESMA-SiO2-Project/2010-ASESMA-Nature-Phys-nphys1842.pdf.

I also posted the editorial "Development Opportunity" in that issue that mentions ASESMA

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rmartin/www/2010-Nat-Phys-editorial-development-opportunity-nphys1854.pdf

and another commentary on the ICTP "Physics for a changing world"

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rmartin/www/2010-Nat-Phys-physics-for-a-changing-world-nphys1854.pdf.

CONTINUING THE PROJECT

Many of you have agreed to continue the project. I have been slow in my job of helping organize the effort - sorry, but I have been busy! The group from Kenya (Cecil, George, Isaac, Korir and Wambua Makau) has made wonderful progress. I can say from long experience that one can make much greater progress when working in a group and having other people to talk to (even if they work on different things). Lets make every effort to ensure that ASESMA fosters interactions and groups that will help all of us.

A PERSONAL NOTE

You may be interested in a series of presentations I helped organize where the featured speaker was Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. He and his wife Usha are marvelous wonderful and stayed in our home. Rajmohan spoke on "Building Bridges for Peace" Information is at the web site: http://www.covenantpresbyterian.net/

:: ANNOUNCEMENTS ::

Congratulations to the following people:

Thabo Letsoalo, who completed his Ph.D. this fall.

Udayakumar Sundareswari (also known as Sundare) published her paper, "Elastic and thermodynamical properties of A15 Nb3X (X = Al, Ga, In, Sn and Sb) compounds — First principles DFT study", in Solid State Communications.

Well done Thabo and Sundare on your accomplishments! We are sure that there are many more notable achievements among the ASESMA group. Please send news to Alison to have it included in the newsletter.

:: JOURNAL ARTICLE OF THE MONTH ::

Koichiro Umemoto, Renata M. Wentzcovitch, Susumu Saito, and Takashi Miyake, "Body-Centered Tetragonal C4: A Viable sp3 Carbon Allotrope", Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 125504 (2010). (Recommended by R. Martin)

This paper is by Renata Wentzcovitch and her group, and was chosen by the American Physical Society to be featured in a FOCUS story (http://focus.aps.org/story/v26/st18). The PRL link is http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v104/i12/e125504. If you can't access

the full paper, Renata has posted it at http://www.cems.umn.edu/research/wentzcovitch/papers/J127.pdf.

Abstract:

We have investigated by first principles the electronic, vibrational, and structural properties of bct C4, a new form of crystalline sp3

carbon recently found in molecular dynamics simulations of carbon nanotubes under pressure. This phase is transparent, dynamically

stable at zero pressure, and more stable than graphite beyond 18.6 GPa. Coexistence of bct C4 with M carbon can explain better the x-ray diffraction pattern of a transparent and hard phase of carbon produced by the cold compression of graphite. Its structure appears to be intermediate between that of graphite and hexagonal diamond. These facts suggest that bct C4 is an accessible form of sp3 carbon along the graphite-to-hexagonal diamond transformation path.

:: RESOURCES FOR PHYSICS NEWS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES ::

Suggestions for sources of information about current research:

"Physics" free on-line from the APS - once a week called: This week in physics - highlighting exceptional research It highlights research in a recent paper in a short article written by someone else, not the authors of the paper. http://physics.aps.org/

Do all of you have access to the APS Journals (PRL, PRB, ...)? They are FREE to people in most of Sub-Saharan Africa IF your library asks for the access. See information at http://www.aps.org/programs/international/programs/peri.cfm