School Notes: School of Engineering & Applied Science
May/June 2025

A superconductor’s secrets revealed

A superconductor that functions at close to room temperature could give us portable MRI machines, levitating trains, better qubits for quantum computers, and a lot more. Superconducting at a relatively warm 225 degrees Fahrenheit, cuprates are the closest we have to that. But little is known about how these materials work, and simplified models of these materials failed to provide much in the way of valuable or reliable information. Professor Sohrab Ismail-Beigi is helping to change that. By combining the work of both theorists and experimentalists, and accounting for the materials’ complexity in his calculations, a recent paper by Ismail-Beigi helped unlock numerous mysteries of cuprates.

Professor elected to the engineering academy

Julie Zimmerman has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, considered to be the highest professional distinction awarded to engineers. Recognized for her “leadership in education and the development of green technologies that enhance the sustainability of engineered systems,” Zimmerman holds joint appointments at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and School of the Environment, while also serving as Yale’s vice provost for planetary solutions. Her seminal 2003 publication on the “Twelve Principles of Green Engineering” established the fundamental framework for her field, including research on integrated biorefinery breakthroughs, carbon dioxide valorization, safer chemicals design, novel water treatment materials, and water-energy nexus analyses.

Professor wins NSF CAREER award

For his innovative work on reimagining how algorithms are designed, Andre Wibisono won a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Wibisono, assistant professor of computer science, will use the $657,704, five-year grant to develop a groundbreaking framework that bridges the gap between continuous mathematical systems and practical computer algorithms. The NSF CAREER award is a prestigious honor for young faculty members and supports the early career activities of teachers and scholars who are considered most likely to become the academic leaders of the future.