Summer 2001 -- Vol. 18, No. 2

FACES OF PENN STATE

Julian Maynard
Distinguished Professor of Physics

Physicist Julian Maynard uses acoustics to study physics. His projects include studying the potential for thermoacoustic refrigeration, which would produce more environmentally friendly refrigerators.

Old, or to be more polite, “classical,” approaches often die quickly in the world of science as well as in everyday life. After all, reflecting telescopes rarely reach the cutting edge of research anymore and nobody would mistake a steam locomotive as a mass-transit solution when magnetic-levitation might provide a viable alternative. Still, Julian Maynard regularly reaches the frontiers of physics with acoustics—a field he happily describes as both “old” and “classical.” He could also describe the approach as productive because his interests and methods keep his laboratory very busy.

“Usually there are six or seven experiments at any one time that interest me, but we only have enough people to run about three,” Maynard says. “There are just so many applications, and so many directions for this type of work.”

With one fairly fundamental project designed to study the elastic constants of materials such as carbon nanotubes, high-temperature superconductors, and quasicrystals, and another more applied effort to study thermoacoustic refrigeration, the potential and variety of Maynard’s acoustic approach seems obvious. In one instance, his lab works to help understand the building blocks for materials that eventually might become the foundation for circuitry and high-density data storage. In another instance, his lab works to help make a more environmentally friendly form of refrigeration a reality. All the work has its basis in acoustics.

“Many people think of acoustics as just sound propagation in air, but my definition of acoustics is anything that oscillates about an equilibrium,” Maynard says. “And everything oscillates about an equilibrium.”

After studying low-temperature physics and working with superfluid helium as an undergraduate student, Maynard first gained an appreciation of acoustics when he began his teaching career at the University of California at Los Angeles. He enjoys the fundamental nature of the acoustics approach. At the same time, the myriad applications and ease with which frequency can be measured appeal to his nature as a “benchtop, hands-on scientist.” Because his father worked for NASA and spent a great deal of time in his wood shop at home, Maynard believes his predisposition for hands-on science was set at an early age. With acoustics, he also brings a different perspective to the Department of Physics and the University. While many materials scientists base their knowledge and research on quantum mechanics, Maynard points out the similarities between wave equations for acoustics and the accepted equations in quantum mechanics. He helps others look at problems from a different perspective.

A father of two, Maynard makes an “old, classical” approach work away from the lab as well. He collects antique chess sets, getting great satisfaction when he finds a bargain, and helps his children with projects such as building tree houses, sharing that same love of hands-on work he got from his father.

-- By Steve Sampsell

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