I was very much taken with carbon fibers because they seemed like the perfect medium to explore transport studies in carbon-based systems.
Mentoring is about listening to people, helping them go over what the issues are and how to clarify ways to deal with any problems that may arise.
The concept of graphene came along in 1947, but nobody paid much attention to it. I was fascinated because it had a linear E versus K while everything else that people were working on at that time had a quadratic dispersion relationship. I wondered why this was and what was so special about it. That was my fascination.
I've been lucky. I've been at a place that's a meritocracy. It doesn't really matter that much what your gender is if you do the work well.
I would say the first three or four papers on nano-thermoelectricity in bismuth went almost unnoticed, but all of a sudden when Dirac cones came along - pop! - there was huge interest in bismuth-related materials.
Commercial thermoelectrics are a reality. The automobile industry is now working with conventional thermoelectric materials. They are interested a little bit in nanostructuring because under some conditions, the nanostructures work.
If you don't have material, you don't have an experiment.
We're all concerned about sustainable energy. If we could recycle waste heat to generate energy, we could use it for something useful.
If we had improved materials that could be produced cheaply and in large quantities, certainly the thermoelectrics industry could move forward more quickly.
I behaved the way I was taught to behave: like a woman in the company of men. If you behaved aggressively in the company of men, they wouldn't accept you.
Institutions are increasingly persuaded that political maneuvering is more important than scientific justification in securing federal funds.
The main thread of my work is structure property relations and materials. If you have certain atoms, why do they attract each other? Why do they make compounds? Why do they do what they do?
If I were not able anymore to come to the lab, that's retirement. Or if I had no more ideas of things. Every year, there's something new that comes along that's too exciting to quit.
I want to try to do something for women in physics worldwide.
The best thing about having a lady professor on campus is that it tells women students that they can do it, too.
Being a woman has helped my career more than it's hindered it.
It's hard for people who come from traditional homes to take women seriously. I do it myself. We're just not used to seeing women professionals. Women have to go out of their way to prove themselves.
