62nd Annual STS (2002-2003)
Finalists
Emma Rose Schmidgall

MINNESOTA
Emma Rose Schmidgall, 17, of Golden Valley, submitted a physics project to the Intel Science Talent Search in which she analyzed scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of the high temperature superconductor, Bi2Sr2Ca2CuO8+( (BSCCO). BSCCO's superconducting properties vary considerably with oxygen content, and Emma examined the hypothesis that the effects of oxygen atoms are related to specific locations within the structure. She developed a computer algorithm using Interactive Data Language (IDL) to analyze STM images (which show atom locations) and compared them to an ideal BSCCO model. Although her investigations provided no firm conclusions about the local role of oxygen atoms in superconductivity, Emma believes that significant progress was made in understanding the physics of the BSCCO structure. Emma is first in her class of 481 at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, where she is captain of the speech team and a violinist in the school orchestra. An enthusiastic fencer and amateur astronomer, she is the daughter of Steven Schmidgall and Debra Wensman. Emma hopes to major in physics at the University of Chicago, MIT or Caltech.