Cooking, Fishing and Jogging through Phase Space: A Practical Guide to Discovering and Understanding New Materials

Paul Canfield, Distinguished Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Robert Allen Wright Chair in Physics, has spent over has spent over a score of years in condensed matter physics, earning an international reputation for discovering and developing new materials. His work combines physics, chemistry, and metallurgy and is specifically focused on the properties of conducting and magnetic materials. In this lecture he will outline the basic philosophy and techniques needed to search for novel materials. These include a combination of intuition, experience, compulsive optimism and a desire to share discovery. The lecture will be general and include side comments, mildly slanderous asides and references to philosophers living and dead. Sigma Xi Lecture.