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discovered_01_2013

FOCUS// The HZDR Research Magazine WWW.Hzdr.DE 32 33 Being homesick is just a natural part of the deal "Of course I feel alone sometimes and I miss my family and friends," Liz admits. It’s especially hard on major holidays like Thanksgiving, "but I also realize it’s part of this whole experience." Liz thinks her Rossendorf colleagues are simply the greatest. "My officemate Marc, my British colleague Joseph and his German wife have all been so supportive right from the start and helped us when we had to make our rounds at all these different agencies and offices when we first got here," says Liz, who holds Hungarian dual citizenship owing to her Hungarian father. And technically she isn’t over here by herself either – Liz did embark on her overseas adventure with husband Bert in tow. He went to school for computer sciences and physics and, a few months ago, started working on his Ph.D. at HZDR’s own ELBE accelerator. The two met at college and, in 2010, were married. Asking questions and finding answers What started out as a joke all of a sudden took a turn for the serious: Liz and Bert didn’t get married in a traditional setting - a city hall or a church – but instead opted for a hybrid magnet at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee as the best fit locale for their wedding – dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with the lab’s logo printed across it. Ever since, Liz has been wearing a ruby ring on her left hand. No coincidence there: After all, it was exactly 50 years prior that an American engineer developed the first laser by shining a bright flashlight on a ruby crystal - a discovery, which by now, has become a staple of everyday life, communication, and science. In 1960, this American engineer came up with all the right answers - just like Liz is hoping to. "I’m interested in finding solutions to problems that affect us all, like, for instance, how we might save energy," she explains. One thing she would like to find out is whether or not materials capable of conducting electricity at room temperature without a loss of current – in other words superconducting materials – actually do exist. But before the ambitious scientist will find her answer, she will have to keep asking a few more of just the right questions. PULSED RECORDS: HZDR scientists are developing internationally unique magnetic coils that are built at the in-house workshops and even used in industry. Photo: Oliver Killig ContaCt _Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory at HZDR Dr. Elizabeth Green e.green@hzdr.de _Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Department Brookhaven National Laboratory Prof. Cedomir Petrovic petrovic@bnl.gov

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