Dr. Elbio Dagotto: Materials Sleuth
Dr. Elbio Dagotto loves a good mystery, particularly one with intricacy.
This Distinguished Professor of Physics uses high-powered computing to
predict the way materials will behave. He is particularly interested in
colossal magnetoresistance, or CMR. This phenomenon is the natural heir
to gigantic magnetoresistance, the nanotechnologial wonder that can dramatically
increase the memory of a hard drive without taking up much space. Dr.
Dagotto, who holds a joint appointment as a Distinguished Scientist at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, recently tackled the idea of how certain
materials can simultaneously undergo a number of physical interactions,
such as spin and charge, and in the process generate CMR. Understanding
why these materials behave in such a way might also reveal more information
about high-temperature superconductors. He wrote about this work in his
article titled "Complexity in Strongly Correlated Electronic Systems,"
which appeared in the July 8 issue of Science.
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