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FEATURE STORY — January/February 2005

UI professor energizes students about quantum mechanics

By Deb Aronson

Martínez

Quantum mechanics.

Its reputation is right up there with rocket science — abstract, complicated, intimidating and dreaded even by chemistry majors. But when University of Illinois professor Todd Martínez power-walks into the room, swigging the last of his morning coffee and carrying his laptop, the students know that they are in the hands of a master.

"It's not an easy subject to grasp, and I don't necessarily have a love for quantum mechanics — not yet anyhow," said UI junior Maggie Brown. "But Professor Martínez hasn't made the class unbearable. I almost enjoy going there, because he makes my brain work so hard that it almost hurts sometimes."

Doesn't sound like high praise? Perhaps that's because you haven't taken a quantum mechanics class.

Quantum mechanics, a sub-field of physical chemistry, describes the behavior of objects/particles on an infinitesimally small scale (the scale of single electrons). Objects on this size scale behave differently from visible objects. For example, if you sent a ping-pong ball down a forked chute, the ball would go one of two ways. In quantum mechanics, however, if a single-particle electron has a choice of two paths to take, it takes ... both.

The mathematical equations that describe this sort of behavior are, necessarily, more complex than those that describe the movement of a ping-pong ball. And it means that our experiences of the observable, physical world do not help when trying to understand the behavior of things like electrons.

That's where Martínez steps in.

"He does a good job of teaching something that is so abstract it's hard to understand," said junior Robert Holmes, a chemical engineering major.

Martínez brings a humanness to his teaching that, like quantum mechanics itself, is abstract yet essential. He is lively in class, approachable and enthusiastic.

"Todd is excited about the research he does; that's what makes him a great guy," said Mitchell Ong, a first-year graduate student in Martínez's lab and one of his teaching assistants. "It makes other people get into it and try to follow to see why he's excited about it."

"Professor Martínez is really animated," said Brown, who is double majoring in anthropology and specialized chemistry. "Some days he even starts bouncing around and telling bad jokes  I love it. For my learning experience, I want somebody like that, someone I can relate to. That is almost as important to me as the kinds of research a professor does because you need to be able to discuss your ideas and your own flawed thinking with the professor you're working with. If you can't do that, where's the learning experience?"

As part of his skill as a chemistry teacher, Martínez recognizes that asking questions is critical.

"The barrier for kids to ask questions, especially in science class, is very high," he said. "It's not like in history or literature, where everybody feels that their opinion [may be] valid. In science, your opinion is not really valid," he said, breaking into a deep belly laugh. "So, if students are asking questions about the material, that is a good sign that they are thinking about it."

The way Martínez sees it, students develop from simply memorizing science facts (in high school), to understanding the theory behind them (early college). After that, it's a matter of taking that framework and applying it to questions no one knows the answers to yet.

That searching for answers intri-gued Andrew Szilva '01 las. As a sophomore, he was excited about Martínez's research but didn't have the background in quantum mechanics to join Martínez's lab. The professor took time to tutor Szilva one-on-one to get him up to speed.

"Professor Martínez didn't know me, but he took the time to work with me," said Szilva, now a graduate student in physical chemistry at Princeton. "He took a chance on me."

Szilva's story shows Martínez's desire to inspire. "That's probably the primary goal for me," he said, "to convince everybody that they should be physical chemists. Or at least show them why it might be something that people might like and that they might consider."

Aronson is a full-time, free-lance writer who lives in Urbana with her husband and two children.

"I-Contact," a regular feature in Illinois Alumni, spotlights a UI professor or class that has made a difference.

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