http://syndicatemizzou.org/articles Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:43:26 GMT Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activity http://syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/45 Meera Chandrasekhar, Professor of Physics at MU, describes herself as "a condensed matter experimentalist," that is, a physicist who studies a class of materials called condensed matter systems (formerly known as "solids"). Within this class are three types of materials: insulators (Styrofoam, plastic, and rubber), which do not allow electricity to flow; conductors (metals), which do allow electricity to flow; and semiconductors, which "have conductivities in between that of insulators and conductors." Chandrasekhar has spent most of her research career seeking to understand the special properties of this "in between" class of materials, and she speaks lovingly about how these semiconductors are unusual by virtue of their limited electrical conductivity and their particular response to light. Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:06:49 GMT http://syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/45 (LuAnne Roth)