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RECOGNIZING DR. RANGA DIAS
______
HON. JOSEPH D. MORELLE
of new york
in the house of representatives
Friday, June 25, 2021
Mr. MORELLE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Ranga Dias, for his discovery of the world's first high-temperature super-conducting material, carbonaceous sulfur hydride. Because of their potential to change the world as we know it, such materials have been sought by scientists for more than a century. I couldn't be more proud that this discovery by Dr. Dias, and his collaborators, was made in my district. I also want to acknowledge the incredible support from the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy Office of Science that made this work possible.
Dr. Dias is a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester and an internationally recognized scientist in the field of high-pressure physics and high energy density science. Since announcing his discovery this past October, Dr. Dias' work has been extensively reported in popular press, including the New York Times, NPR, and the BBC. Dr. Dias was named to the 2021 Time 100 NEXT list that highlights 100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future and was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, award. CAREER is the NSF's most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty and is intended to help them build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.
Professor Dias' research focuses on materials under extreme pressures where their properties are altered in fundamental ways. At these incredibly high pressures, individual atoms are forced into close proximity, in a similar manner as when they are cooled to very low temperatures, allowing them to exhibit a range of interesting quantum behaviors, including super-conductivity. This approach is a paradigm shift that has allowed Dr. Dias' team what no one else has. To say this is the stuff of science fiction would be an understatement.
To create this material, the team placed a mixture of carbon, hydrogen and sulfur in a microscopic niche carved between the tips of two diamonds and then subjected them to laser light and squeezed them at 2.6 million times atmospheric pressure at sea level. The result was a new record: a material that exhibited superconductivity at about 58 degrees Fahrenheit. The hope, which I share, is that with further research, this team of talented scientists will find a way to make these, or similar materials, stable at ambient temperatures and pressures, unlocking a wide range of potential applications that will literally transform our world, including ultra-efficient computers and electronic devices, essentially loss-less energy transmission and storage, and new forms of propulsion and industrial power transmission without friction. With this approach, it may even become possible to create unique materials whose properties are tuned to particular applications that we have not yet dreamed of.
Of course, translating this advance into practical applications and realizing these breakthroughs still require additional research and development that will take some time. However, the phenomenal achievement of Dr. Dias and his team have shown us what is possible and, thanks to federal support for science, we are closer now than we have ever been. I congratulate Ranga on his accomplishments and wish him the greatest success with his future research.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 111
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