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ScIU Indiana University Bloomington
Thomas Ruch I am an undergraduate student majoring in physics, math, and astrophysics/astronomy with plans to attend graduate school for a yet unspecified branch of physics. Currently, my research involves the synthesis and subsequent analysis of quasi-one-dimensional nanowires. In addition, I am involved in a project using stochastic methods to numerically solve systems of nonlinear ODE’s modeling a stage of meiosis known as meiotic exit. Outside of school, I am an avid golfer who loves to read and hike around Bloomington.

Entries by Thomas Ruch

What the heck is a nanowire?

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[A myriad of nanowires are shown growing outwards, originating from a central growth nucleus.]

Imagine a future in which your iPhone 20 charges itself as you walk down the street and your house is powered by photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells installed in your backyard, using the power of the sun to convert captured rainwater into clean hydrogen. If we have any hope of realizing this future, you can be certain that nanowires will play a significant role. So what are nanowires, and why are they so important? My previous blog post was dedicated to examining a class of objects known as topological materials, with an emphasis on the bizarre realm of topological insulators (TIs). Implicit in the definition of topological insulators in the previous post was the assumption that the bulk of this insulator behaves as one would expect from its name: preventing the flow of electric current. Real-world TIs are not quite so simple, however…

Can you turn a baseball into a donut? An introduction to topological materials

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[A chrome trefoil knot is shown coming out of a tunnel, with futuristic circuitry reflected on its surface.]

In 2016, three physicists, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and Mike Kosterlitz, won the Nobel prize in physics for their groundbreaking discoveries of topology in matter/materials. Although many people have heard of topology before, likely associating it with the more familiar term “topography,” the fundamental nature of topology remains relatively opaque to those outside of the fields of math and certain applied sciences.

College of Arts + Sciences

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