Chemistry Alumna Visits with Students to Discuss Research and Path to Prestigious PhD Program
Oct. 25, 2024
By Stephanie Godward, Communications and Marketing Director, College of Arts & Sciences
Irma Avdic (BS Chemistry ’21) believes the most important factor in distinguishing yourself in any field is to put your efforts where your passions lie, and to surround yourself with supportive mentors and colleagues who will foster your growth along the way. As an undergraduate researcher in UofL’s Chemistry department, Avdic experienced firsthand the community that forms around research.
“Getting involved in research and being a teaching assistant as an undergraduate student at UofL were likely the most formative experiences that shaped my plans for graduate school,” she said. “As an undergraduate researcher, I gained experience in using a computational chemistry software suite of programs, Gaussian, coding in Python and Perl, critically reading scientific literature, and presenting my findings in an accessible manner to a broad audience, all of which have served me well and set me up for success in my graduate studies.”
Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Avdic and her family immigrated in 2016 to Louisville, where her family still resides. With an MS in Chemistry from the University of Chicago she earned in 2022, Irma is now pursuing her PhD in theoretical physical chemistry at the same institution, which is ranked among the national top 10 Chemistry graduate programs.
She is currently working on developing algorithms for molecular simulation on quantum devices, under the guidance of Prof. David Mazziotti, and plans to either pursue postdoc work in quantum computing after completing her PhD, or alternately plans to pursue a career in the industry of quantum computing. Avdic visited with Chemistry students at UofL during a visit on Oct. 21, 2024.
“It all truly started with thinking, ‘quantum mechanics is so weird and cool, and I need to know more about it,’” she said.
Quantum computing uses the strange rules of quantum physics to solve problems much faster than regular computers. In regular computers, the basic unit of information is a bit, which can be either 0 or 1. In quantum computers, the basic unit is called a qubit (quantum bit), which can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, thanks to a property called superposition. Quantum computers also use entanglement, which means that qubits can be linked together in such a way that the state of one qubit instantly affects the state of another, even if they're far apart. This allows quantum computers to manipulate a lot of information all at once. In simple terms, imagine a classical computer as solving problems like walking down a path and checking every possible solution one by one. A quantum computer can have weights of all possible solutions, making it much faster for certain tasks. It can be applied in real-world industries including drug discovery, finance risk analysis, optimization of energy grids, manufacturing, and more.
Avdic won several awards as an undergraduate student at UofL and completed an honors thesis based on computational/theoretical chemistry research conducted in the lab of Associate Professor Lee Thompson, who served as her mentor. In addition, Avdic published papers with Thompson as an undergraduate.
During her time in Chicago, she has already published several papers and recently won a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
“Working with Prof. Thompson was very exciting and rewarding. He was able to strike the right balance between independence and support, which helped me exercise my creativity while leaning on his expertise to learn the fundamentals of the field most effectively,” Avdic said. “Alongside my graduate student mentor, Prof. Thompson encouraged me to learn new skills and techniques, critically read scientific literature, and present my findings in an accessible manner. He also encouraged me to apply to graduate schools in the first place and to ensure the University of Chicago was on that list.”
Thompson said that with the experience Avdic now has, she is perfectly positioned for a career moving forward.
“Irma is still in the PhD program, so for undergraduates here, they can see what people studying here at Louisville can go on to do, and Chicago is one of the top programs. It shows them that they do not have to limit themselves,” Thompson said. “The undergraduates here are some of the best in the country.”
Avdic encourages students to get involved in research early in their undergraduate careers to put theoretical concepts from the classroom into practice.
“Identify people who are doing the type of work you would like to be doing and learn how they got to where they are, what skills they find most useful, and what you can do to get there as well,” she said. “I would also encourage students to take classes that may be outside of the major requirements but may be beneficial in certain subfields. For example, since I was very interested in quantum mechanics, I decided to take classes in linear algebra and ordinary differential equations, which proved very useful in my graduate-level courses. Finally, I recommend staying curious and open-minded to tackling different research questions.”
