Look Who's at the Lab: Luisa Chiesa
In Look Who's at the Lab, we profile some of the hundreds of scientists who visit our lab every year.
Engineer Luisa Chiesa, an assistant professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Photo by Larry Gordon.
Job Title: : Assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tufts University, Massachusetts
Mag Lab user since: 2005
Number of visits to lab: ~ 10
Dates of most recent experiment:
January, 2012
Your home is in: Boston, Massachuetts
Distance traveled (from home to lab):
~ 1,300 miles
Research interests: the electromechanical properties of niobium-tin (a metallic compound used as a superconductor)
Web site:http://engineering.tufts.edu/me/people/chiesa/index.asp
E-mail: luisa.chiesa@tufts.edu
Last MagLab research: Critical current measurements of niobium-tin triplets (three strands) as a function of applied transverse load and critical current measurements of niobium-tin strands under pure bending.
Title: Electromechanical characterization of superconducting wires and sub-cables under pure bending and transverse loads
Other participants: Joe King, Phil Mallon, Tiening Wang (graduate students from Tufts), and Makoto Takayasu (from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Plasma Science & Fusion Center in Cambridge, MA)
Synopsis of latest experiment: Electromechanical behaviors of superconducting strands in large cables are a very challenging subject considering the complex interactions among strands in a cable. Understanding these behaviors and designing more efficient magnets are of vital importance to the success of the fusion program. Reaching this goal will reduce the cost and improve the predictability of large magnet systems. To address the challenge, we have been performing at the Magnet Lab two different experiments in magnetic fields of 12 T to 15 T: (1) critical current measurements of single strands under pure bending conditions, and (2) critical current measurements of strands and subcables as a function of applied transverse load.
Mag Lab user Luisa Chiesa and her co-investigators, Tufts engineering student Joe King and MIT scientist Makoto Takayasu, take a break at the end of a long week of Magnet Lab experiments.
Photo by Larry Gordon.
Facility:The MagLab's DC Field Facility, Cell 4, using a 20 T, 195 mm bore resistive magnet
Equipment: Our custom-made probe and custom-made experimental sample holders and our sample preparation are some of the most critical and challenging aspects of our experiments.
Techniques:We typically measure critical currents of superconducting niobium-tin samples at fixed field and temperature. To do so, we drive current from an external power supply to the sample itself and measure the voltage across the sample through voltage taps that we installed prior to inserting the samples in the cryostat. The voltages are read through the nanovoltmeter and using the Magnet Lab data-acquistion system.
Q: What's the best thing about working at the lab?
A: “The facilities are great, with equipment that I could never afford in my own lab. What makes it a special place, though, are the people. Extremely competent, extremely helpful and friendly. I could make a list of all the people I got to know at the lab to which I have to say thank you, but it would take up the entire space of this post!”
"Watching a superconducting-to-resistive transition of the samples we test is one of the most exciting and beautiful things to observe."
Q: What you miss most about home when you're here:
A: “My own bed!”
Q: What's the most unscientific thing about you?
A: “I enjoy hiking and running. I listen to alternative rock and often sing along (badly).” She's particularly fond of the band Pearl Jam.
Q: Scientist and nonscientist, living or dead: Whom would you most like to meet?
A: She'd like to meet the scientists involved with the Manhattan Project, a secret military program that created the first atom bombs during World War II.
“I wish I could have been a fly on the wall, listening to their discussions and learning more about them and their perspective of what they were doing.”
For nonscientist, she'd like to meet Nives Meroi, a 51-year-old mountain climber who lives (with husband and fellow mountain climer Romano Benet) in the alps in northern Italy. Meroi is known for successfully scaling soaring heights (about 8,000 meters or 5 miles high) without using additional oxygen or guides.
“I love hiking and enjoy the outdoors and being in the mountains whenever I can, and that's part of why I would like to meet her. I feel that doing what she does (and what other great mountain climbers do) requires incredible physical and psychological strengths. I admire her.”
Q: What are you reading now?
A: She’s reading two books: “You Shall Know Our Velocity” by Dave Eggers, (2003, Vintage), a fictional account of two friends who fly around the globe, giving away money in hopes of freeing themselves of a devastating loss. The other book is “Into the Wild”" by Jon Krakauer (2008, Ace Books), the true story of Chris McCandless, a bright, idealistic young man who ditched his worldly possessions and hitchiked to Alaska, where he tried to live on his own in the wild.
Q: Complete this sentence: We could make great strides in science, if we could just figure out how to_________.
A: “get more people to work in science.”
Q: What advice would you give someone just starting out in your field?
A: “Be patient, perseverant and work hard. Do something you have passion for and hold that passion tight. Often in science, the progress is so small, it's difficult even for yourself to appreciate it.”
Q: What keeps you awake at night?
A: “Most often it's personal issues. Sometimes we are not ready for an experiment and we have magnet time the following morning so we keep working till we are ready. In the latter case, adrenaline is what keeps me awake!”
Q: What is it about superconductivity that fascinates you and keeps you studying it?
A: “Watching a superconducting-to-resistive transition of the samples we test is one of the most exciting and beautiful things to observe.”
Q: Your favorite quote:
A: “But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people that interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same times, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace things, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...” ---Jack Kerouac, “On the Road” (1957, Viking Press).
Q: Parting thoughts on science today:
A: “Science and research give you the freedom to explore subjects that always surprise you. The unexpected is what makes it always fun and intellectually stimulating — and, at times, frustrating, but also at times elatedly rewarding.”
Most Recent Publications:
1. M. Takayasu, J.H. Schultz, J.V. Minervini, L. Chiesa, “Bending effects on critical currents of Nb3Sn superconducting wires”, Adv. Cryo. Eng., 56, pp. 239-246, 2010.
2. L. Chiesa, M. Takayasu, J.V. Minervini, “Experimental studies of transverse stress effects on the critical current of sub-sized Nb3Sn superconducting cables”, Adv. Cryo. Eng., 56, pp. 247-254, 2010.
3. L. Chiesa, M. Takayasu, J.V. Minervini, “Contact mechanics model for transverse load effects on superconducting strands in cable-in-conduit conductor”, Adv. Cryo. Eng., 56, pp. 208-215.
4. M. Takayasu, L. Chiesa, D. L. Harris, A. Allegritti, and J. V. Minervini “Pure Bending Strains of Nb3Sn Wires”, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 24 (2011) 045012.
5. L. Chiesa, M. Takayasu, “Comparison of a contact mechanics model with experimental results to optimize the prediction of transverse load effects of large superconducting Cable-In-Conduit-Conductor”, IEEE Trans. Appl. Superconduct, Vol. 21, No. 3, June 2011, p. 2024-2027.
6. M. Takayasu, L. Chiesa, L. Bromberg, and J. Minervini, “Cabling and Joint Methods of High Current Cables made from HTS Tapes”, IEEE Trans. Appl. Superconduct, Vol. 21, No. 3, June 2011, p. 2340-2344.
7. T. Wang, L. Chiesa, M. Takayasu, “Fundamental evaluations of transverse load effects of Nb3Sn strands using finite element analysis”, IEEE/CSC & ESAS European Superconductivity News Forum (ESNF), No. 15, January 2011.
8. T. Wang, L. Chiesa, M. Takayasu, “Fundamental Simulations of the transverse load effects on Nb3Sn strands using Finite Element Analysis”, Accepted for publication at CEC-ICMC 2011, Spokane, WA.
9. M. Takayasu, L. Chiesa, L. Bromberg, and J. Minervini, “HTS twisted stacked-tape cable conductor”, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 25 (2012) 014011.
Date posted: Feb. 2012
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