Finding the Magic in Materials Science

The next time you watch sports on your flat screen TV, or on your smartphone, you can thank Georgia Tech scientists.  

Not for the action on the field, but for the technology behind that screen. Georgia Tech researchers in physics, chemistry, and materials sciences have sparked winning advances over the years in photonics and optoelectronics.

They are also the sciences that get the attention of Carlos Silva, professor in the School of Physics and in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research group is looking for the next generation of semiconductors, and that is the focus of ScienceMatters Season 3, Episode 7.

Silva is searching for less expensive, more energy efficient, and more environmentally safe materials in the semiconductors that go into electronic devices.  

Silva and his team are working to realize new applications that could include better and cheaper solar cells, wearable electronics, biomedical sensors inside our bodies, or spacesuit fabrics that can help astronauts monitor radiation as they explore a distant world.

Each ScienceMatters episode includes a quiz that refers to facts mentioned in each podcast. A winner will be chosen randomly from all who submit correct answers. Winners will receive special College of Sciences gifts.

The Episode 7 quiz question:

What particle is made up of an electron and an electron hole?

The winner will be announced in the following week.

Submit your answer here: https://forms.cos.gatech.edu/sciencematters-season-3-episode-7-quiz

ScienceMatters podcasts are available for subscription at Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud.

Related Media

Click on image(s) to view larger version(s)

  • Carlos Silva, professor in the School of Physics and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

  • Carlos Silva (left) and graduate assistant Felix Thouin in the Silva Research Group lab.

  • A depiction of a hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite

For More Information Contact

Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
Georgia Tech College of Sciences
404-894-5209