Jim Andrews, left, and Tom Oder, faculty members in YSU’s physics department, are joined by student Jessica Shipman in a lab in the basement of Ward Beecher Hall.

At a time when many of her ninth–grade classmates at Warren Harding High School were obsessed with the latest installment of Harry Potter, 14–year–old Jessica was enraptured in The Elegant Universe, a book about string theory.

“From that time on, I was just hooked on physics,” she said.

Now a junior physics and mathematics major at Youngstown State University, Shipman is one of the students who will be part of YSU’s new and prestigious affiliation with the National Science Foundation’s Center for Layered Polymeric Systems, known as CLiPS.

Led by researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the $19 million center focuses on layered polymers — combining thin layers of plastic or other synthetic materials to create products ranging from packaging materials to optical switches.

Partnering on the center with Case are the University of Texas at Austin, Fisk University in Nashville, University of Southern Mississippi and Cleveland Metro School District. The center also has six affiliates: Ohio Northern University, Rochester Institute of Technology, State University of New York in Fredonia, Pennsylvania State University in Erie, Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana and YSU.

At YSU, the academic collaboration will include work in polymer physics and polymer engineering within the physics and chemical engineering programs. Facilitators are Jim Andrews, professor of physics; Doug Price, associate professor of chemical engineering; and Tom Oder, assistant professor of physics.

Andrews, who has spent most of his career researching optical materials and polymers, said YSU was chosen as an affiliate because of its growing research programs, its strong focus on undergraduate education, and its educational outreach in the YSU service area.

“The research leaders at Case were impressed with the way YSU’s new College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics facilitates collaboration among the engineering and science disciplines,” Andrews said.

As part of CLiPS, YSU will be involved in several outreach efforts to educate the general public about polymer science and how polymers are used in everyday life. Part of that effort could include the development of a program in the Ward Beecher Planetarium to educate children and adults about polymers. Andrews calls the program a “polymerium”

The CLiPS program also provides hands–on research opportunities for YSU undergraduate students involving state–of–the–art synthetic materials. In addition to working with Andrews, Price and Oder on their research, YSU students will be eligible to participate in an NSF–funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer program at Case Shipman has been accepted into and will be part of the summer REU program at Case with CLiPS.

Last summer, Shipman participated in an REU at the Air Force Research Lab in Dayton, where she worked on hyper–spectral imaging. She began working with Andrews last fall, developing a computer program that simulates the transmission, reflection and absorption of light on a layered polymer material.