Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Ultra Barrier Coatings protect this Organic Light Emitting Device test unit from moisture and allow it to continue to function while being completely submerged in water.

If television screens and computer or cell phone displays were made from plastic they would be lighter, more rugged and someday might be flexible enough to roll up. Unfortunately, oxygen and water vapor permeate plastic and damage the device. Now, two barrier coating products developed at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory may allow plastics to play a significant role in the display industry. Without the coatings, moisture in the air would cause sensitive Organic Light Emitting Devices to fail within days. However, coated OLED test units have survived months of continuous operation in air. With additional improvements, researchers expect plastic electronics to meet or exceed the performance of conventional displays.

 

Fastest computer to aid defense research

Research at IBM and DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has produced the world's fastest supercomputer, called ASCI White, which will use complex 3D tools to simulate the aging and operation of the nation's nuclear weapons. Capable of 12 trillion operations per second, it is an IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer that requires 28 tractor-trailer trucks for delivery and covers two basketball courts. It is one of a series of increasingly powerful supercomputers being developed under the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative by computer companies working with DOE's national defense labs. Goal is to reach 100 trillion operations per second within four years.

[David Schwoegler, 925/422-6900,
schwoegler1@llnl.gov]

Jefferson Lab graduate student
on the move

Peter Agbakpe

Peter Agbakpe owes much of the progress he has made in the field of theoretical physics to his family. "There was a lot of competition in my house, in terms of academics. My four brothers and four sisters were brilliant students," he says.

Peter, who grew up in Ghana, in west Africa, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in theoretical physics at Hampton University and is a graduate in the Theory Department at DOE's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

Peter was interested in science and engineering from the beginning. Even though his parents never went to school at all—his mother was a baker; dad was a farmer—they insisted that their children study and do well in school.

"They saw it as the only way to be independent when you grow up," he says.

He obtained his bachelor's degree from Ghana's University of Science and Technology and subsequently attended a conference organized to help bridge the gap between African-Americans and Africans. A professor there asked him if he might be interested in coming to America to study physics.

Peter selected Hampton University, where he earned a master's in applied mathematics and then decided to go into nuclear theory.

"All my life I've been a mathematician," he says. "I don't know how I'd do [as an experimentalist] sitting and watching things happen. Theoretical nuclear physics is very close to what I used to do. Physics is challenging."

Peter is about to finish school and has accepted a faculty position at Norfolk State University in mathematics. He loves teaching and wants to keep teaching and making a difference in the lives of students.

In his spare time, he is a volunteer teacher at a local high school. He wants to understand, he says, how American students, particularly African-American students, understand and use mathematics and science.