Young Professionals 2019 Part 2 introduces outstanding young professionals (under 40 years of age) who are doing interesting things in cryogenics and superconductivity and who show promise of making a difference in their fields.

A 60-meter-long line has been developed for CERN’s future accelerator, the High-Luminosity LHC, which is due to come into operation in 2026. Tests began last year and the line has transported 40,000 amps, 20 times more than what is possible at room temperature with ordinary copper cables of a similar size. This superconducting line is the first of its kind and allows vast quantities of electrical current to be transported within a pipe of a relatively small diameter. Companies are using the work done at CERN to study the possibility of using similar transmission lines at high voltage, instead of conventional systems, to transport electricity and power over long distances.

In April, the Event Horizon Telescope captured the first ever photo of a black hole. Superconducting submillimeter detectors, developed by engineers and astronomers at the University of Virginia and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, helped make visible what once was only black. These devices were responsible for capturing the electromagnetic signal after its 55 million light-year journey.