Written by Ajanthy Arulpragasam Wednesday, 27 August 2008 10:32
The Nobel Laureate meeting, held annually on the island of Lindau in Germany, allows successful early career researchers to meet and interact with Nobel Laureates within their respective fields.
In a two-stage selection process, Mr Napier was initially selected by the Australian Academy of Science after being nominated by his supervisor. From there, the Nobel Laureate Council selected Mr Napier to attend the 2008 meeting of Nobel Laureates in Physics.
A final year PhD student from the School of Physics at UWA, Mr Napier’s research investigates the interactions that occur between atoms and electrons using atomic scattering experiments.
“My work is looking at isolated atoms which we collide with a single electron within a vacuum chamber,” says Mr Napier.
“We observe this collision and look at its aftermath.”
“From this we are able to deduce the structure of the atom and the dynamics of the collision that took place.”
The atom and electron is a simple model which can be investigated to better understand the same processes which occur in chemistry or molecular biology, according to Mr Napier.
“It’s a simple model where we can start to understand the nuts and bolts of the interaction,” he says.
Mr Napier’s research has a particular focus on examining the electron scattering from zinc atoms, which in the future could be used in the production of less toxic, environmentally-friendly light sources.
“Zinc could possibly be used a replacement for mercury in fluorescent lights. If we didn’t have to use mercury because of its toxicity, we could use zinc instead as a possible application,” says Mr Napier.
