Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821

November 19, 2002 GOVERNMENT WORK BECKONS UNM GRADUATE STUDENT Tucumcari-native learns about explosives… Based on some of the projects that University of New Mexico graduate student Becky Streetman has worked on, one might think that she is destined for employment with the United States Government. In fact, Streetman, a Tucumcari native, has worked on a number of projects some of which involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. Streetman, who earned her bachelors degree in psychology at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, received a full scholarship after graduating with honors from Tucumcari High School, has also worked at the Energetic Materials Research & Testing Center at New Mexico Tech where she was involved with explosives research. “The Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center involves explosives related, counter-terrorist, and defense weapons research or whatever kind of research they received funding for at the time and a lot of the work I did for them had to do with the Oklahoma City, Saudi Arabia, and World Trade Center bombings,” said Streetman. “It also included working with trial attorneys, the FBI and CIA. “I worked on a lot of completely random projects. I’ve done some improvised explosive research projects. These projects basically entailed walking into your kitchen, pulling out anything and everything you could find to make an explosive with. It was counter-terrorist related and funded by the FBI. I also worked a great deal with the FAA on projects relating to airport security.” The government entities started recruiting Streetman and told her if she got a degree in science they would hire her, so she started working on a chemistry degree. “I already had a bachelor’s degree in psychology, so I began to pursue a graduate level degree at Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) in physical chemistry,” said Streetman. “This career move took me to Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) working on a master’s thesis project with the Materials Science and Technology division studying pressure effects on various polymers used as a component in many weapons.” She completed her master’s degree at ENMU and began to pursue a doctoral degree in physical chemistry at UNM in August 2000. Her current project, which is also her dissertation project, is being done in collaboration with the chemistry division, called Physical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy or C-PCS at LANL. “That’s what brought me to UNM from ENMU, to work on a Ph.D. in physical chemistry,” said Streetman, who is advised by Dr. Ed Walters in the Chemistry Department. “My dissertation project is a lot of fun and also a lot of hard work. Right now I am studying explosive products. When you are in grade school, you learn that explosions consist of particles made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. However, to be able to study an actual explosion and the components that are produced during an explosion is very difficult because of the short timeframe and also the ability to collect any useful data within that timeframe.” When an explosion occurs, there is a large blast where extreme pressures and temperatures are reached and a shock wave is produced. It’s very difficult to study these reactions during an explosion says Streetman. She uses a high-pressure, high-temperature diamond anvil cell which allows me to study mixtures of water and nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide, and carbon dioxide and nitrogen with pressures up to 400 kilobars (5.8 million pounds per square inch – a tire on a regular car has 35 pounds per square inch) and 1200 K (1700° F). “These are actually fairly low pressures and temperatures in comparison to an explosion,” said Streetman. “However, it is equally as important to understand the low pressure and temperature regime in order to have any idea what is going on with the chemistry at much higher temperatures and pressures.” When she’s finished collecting the data, she will use computational modeling to extrapolate these temperatures and pressures to actual explosive conditions. “In terms of explosions, I’m studying various mixtures of the products that remain and the chemistry that goes on between those products after a blast occurs,” said Streetman. She has also spent time at UNM working on magic shows with fellow chemistry student Angie Alvarado. The duo has traveled around the state performing magic shows at schools and trying to show people how much fun chemistry is. Streetman, who carries over a 3.0 GPA in graduate school at UNM, is the daughter of Jim and Norma Streetman of Tucumcari. # # #

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