NEWS
Externship Report: Jianzhong Yang
The Externship Program is a research exchange program that allows New Mexico graduate students (with an existing assistantship) to spend a semester or summer doing research at a partnering New Mexico university or research facility. This report is from University of New Mexico student Jianzhong Yang about his time as an extern at New Mexico State University.
This summer, I was lucky to get chance to participate the externship program supported by NM EPSCoR. It was a precious research experience in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at New Mexico State University.
My host professor is Prof. Hongmei Luo, who is a very nice professor. I knew Prof. Luo 5 years ago, since my friends were working in her research group at that time. I got the chance to visit her nice house and talked with her, so I was very impressed with Prof. Luo. I am very interested in her research on functional oxide thin films for optoelectronic applications such as solar cells. That’s also the reason I want to participate this program, so I wish I can get chance to know more their research and learn some technique from her lab, which can benefit my own research.
It was my second time to visit the beautiful Las Cruces, when the last time was 5 years ago. I was glad that Prof. Luo’s students led me to their lab and showed me their instruments when I arrived. During the two months externship, they guided me how to use their instruments and taught me some experimental techniques. I got to know how to prepare strontium titanium oxide thin films via polymer-assisted deposition method, so we were planning to use these thin films to fabricate solar cells, which will be served as a cathode interfacial layer. We expected these thin films can enhance the performance of solar cells and also improve the stability of solar cells in the future.
Two months externship program went very quickly, I missed the friends I made in Prof. Luo’s lab. I very appreciate that Prof. Luo’s kindness to host me doing research in her lab and also her precious advice in my research. At last, I also appreciate the great externship opportunity offered by EPSCoR.
