UPNews: Where were you born?

Stephen Hill: Canterbury, England. When I was young, I moved to near Oxford.

UP: Where did you go to school?

SH: I went to the University of Oxford for both my undergraduate and graduate studies. My father was a chemist, thus I was drawn to the chemistry-end of physics. In England, specialization occurs as early as the last semester of undergraduate studies and I decided I wanted to go into condensed matter physics. I continued at the University of Oxford to get my Ph.D which they call at Oxford a "D.Phil". I graduated at the normal pace in England which is three years for a bachelor's degree and then three years for a PhD.

UP: Do you have any tales that you would like to share from your days at Oxford? SH: At our triannual exams we are actually required to wear subfusc. Subfusc is what you would call a cap and gown suit in the United States. It technically consists of a dark gown, black socks, black shoes, white collared shirt, white bow tie, and mortarboard.

UP: What was your doctoral thesis, and how much work was it?

SH: My doctoral thesis was "Far-infrared and millimetre wave magneto-optical studies of interacting quasiparticles". This work involved using mainly far-infrared spectroscopy to study the properties of interacting electrons (quasiparticles) in various interesting conducting and superconducting materials. It was about three to four months of work.

UP: What did you do after you recieved your Ph.D?

SH: I crossed the pond right after I finished at Oxford. I went to work at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) at FSU in Tallahassee. I worked there on high field spectroscopy of superconductors. The lab was new when I arrived, and so there weren't many people working and conducting experiments yet. It was easy to get access and do what you needed to do, so I was able to be very productive. After working there for two and a half years, I got an assistant professorship at Montana State. After four years there, I came to UF in 2001.

UP: Can you tell me a bit about your research?

SH: My group has developed unique spectroscopic techniques spanning the frequency range from a few GHz up to nearly one THz. We currently use these techniques to study various novel molecule-based magnetic and superconducting materials. One example is the study of quantum effects in molecular nanomagnets. This work involves close collaboration with chemists who synthesize crystals for us containing molecules with up to 84 magnetic transition metal ions such as Fe, Mn, Ni, and so on. We then use magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the quantum energy-level structure (the Hamiltonian) of these molecules, which are of relevance to future magnetic information storage technologies. At present, the memory in your computer hard drive is manufactured via top-down methods, i.e. simply by making smaller and smaller particles from conventional magnetic materials. The molecular, or bottom-up approach, takes advantage of chemistry (nature) to controllably design nanoscale magnetic objects. The point where these two approaches meet also happens to coincide with the length-scale at which the quantum and classical worlds meet. Consequently, this research is also of immense fundamental interest. Finally, there are connections to biology: for example, the very well-known iron storage protein in your blood, ferritin, is a huge molecule containing around 4,500 Fe(III) ions.

UP: What is this research like?

SH: This year I've collaborated with Dr. Cheng, and Dr. Christou of the chemistry department. Many of our papers are published in chemistry journals. Condensed matter physics, which has historically been a strong field of study, necessitates me to work with many different kinds of professors from other universities. I have hosted graduate students in chemistry and physics from other universities. The NSF, which funds much of our work, is supportive to the many vital component departments of this research. One of the defining qualities of condensed matter physics is its interdisciplinary nature.

UP: What are your thoughts on teaching?

SH: I've taught Statistical Mechanics and Thermal Physics before that. I have also taught Electromagnetism, Modern Physics, and Intro-level classes. I hope to teach the 300-400 students in physics once again in the lower level physics classes. I usually prepare a lot for class, even if I have taught the class recently. I will sit down and go over the material again. I also like to do in-class demos if I can, and I like to stress the underlying principles of the subject. I have always thought that students asking questions is good. Most students think I'm tough on tests, but I think in the end I can also be quite lenient at times. I'd prefer to give long tests like the final, however I am usually restricted to the fifty minutes in class since I don't like doing night tests.

UP: Who are your graduate students and undergrad researchers?

SH: I have two graduate students working with me: Saiti Datta and Changhyun Koo. My graduate students work on a little bit of everything: simulation and lab work. I also have two undergraduate student researchers. Erica Bolin, a senior, has published papers and works on many Matlab simulations. Gage Redler does instrument development in the lab, building hardware circuits and crystats. Since Erica is graduating this semester I will only have one undergraduate student next year. I always welcome inquiries for research positions. I find that the undergraduate students I get are very helpful.