Brookhaven Lecture

Whaddya know? It was one hundred years ago this year that Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that by lowering the temperature of mercury to a blistering cold four degrees Kelvin, the metal became a "superconductor" and allowed electricity to flow through it with very little, if any, resistance. Fast forward one hundred years: now we are looking for new ways to store and transport energy â€" energy we can use to get from one place to another, stay comfortable when the weather outside is not, grow enough healthy food to feed the population, and sustain our ways of life â€" all while trying to protect the planet. Superconductors, with their potential to be über-energy efficient, are likely to play a crucial role in solving these challenges, and researchers at Brookhaven Lab are figuring out just how it can be done. Li will begin his talk with an overview of the first one hundred years of exploring superconductivity. He will also discuss the challenges of developing new superconductors and improving their performance for real-world energy applications, and then explain how basic science researchers at BNL are addressing those challenges. Li earned a Ph.D. in 1991 from Iowa State University, where he completed his doctoral work at DOE's Ames Laboratory. He arrived at Brookhaven Lab as a postdoc that same year. In 1993, Li became an assistant materials scientist at BNL, and an associate materials scientist in 1995. He was promoted to physicist in 1998. In 2009, Li was appointed as group leader for BNL's Advanced Energy Materials group.