Physics Colloquium: Hillary Smith

What can materials physicists do for climate change?

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded “for the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.” But what can physicists do to mitigate the impact of climate change and catalyze the adoption of green technologies? Society needs an economy powered by renewable energy, alongside a revolution in the way products are designed and used.  Materials physicists can drive this transformation through research and development efforts ranging from development of solar photovoltaics and methods to produce hydrogen, to design of claddings for high voltage DC power transmission. In this talk, I will offer a perspective on how physicists can contribute to new technologies that will mitigate climate change, and I will discuss research in my lab on low-cost, high efficiency materials for next-generation energy grid storage.

Hillary Smith is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Swarthmore College where she studies glasses and materials for energy storage applications. Prior to her arrival at Swarthmore, Dr. Smith worked as a Senior Researcher in the Applied Physics & Materials Science Department at Caltech.  Dr. Smith obtained her B.A. in Physics and Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College and Ph.D. in Materials Science from Caltech.  Her current work is funded by a DOE Early Career Research Award.