Alyssa Allende Motz ’11, MS ’12

Physics PhD student Alyssa Allende Motz says physics is about “teaching you how to learn and how to think of things so that you can make more conclusions that lead you to more questions.” Allende Motz regularly works with nonlinear optics and nonlinear microscopy—or focusing a laser beam to a very small point to the diffraction limit of light to get high-resolution imaging. In particular, her research focuses on thin-film photovoltaics, a technology with the potential to be an inexpensive energy resource while still being highly effective, among other applications. While this research has answered many questions, there are still many more that still need to be answered, and Allende Motz can’t wait to figure them out.


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