April 2001
JLab's On-Target Newsletter

Anne Reilly, College of William and Mary physics professor and Free Electron Laser User, received a prestigious CAREER award form the National Science Foundation during March.

The highly competitive Faculty Career Development (CAREER) Awards are designed to encourage research and teaching among young scientists in the early stages of their academic careers.

Reilly's award amounts to $450,000 over a period of five years. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1996 and worked for Jefferson Lab and William and Mary in a bridge appointment from August 1998 through August 2000. She specializes in optical techniques applied to the study of novel materials. With her research money, Reilly will work with graduate and senior undergraduate students at JLab's Free Electron Laser and in her laser lab in the William Small Physical Laboratory on the W&M campus. At the same time she plans to create hands-on experimental modules for use in teaching optics and materials science.

Reilly uses ultrashort laser pulses to study the magnetic behavior in ferro magnetic thin films of cobalt or nickel grown on silicon. One major question in these materials is how fast the magnetization can be flipped back and forth. Such work has important technological implications for hard-drive read sensors and the next generation of computer devices called "magnetoelectronics" or "spinelectronics".

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Updated July 3, 2003