REU Student: Theodore Vecchione, Mentor: G. Hoatson

In an attempt to understand the complex interactions which determine macroscopic characteristics of a substance, the project is dedicated to determining the activation energies necessairy for random, thermally-activated site jumps around molecular axes of symetery. The magic angle spinning is used for higher resolution and greater sensitivity in the experiments by time averaging out the quadrupole interaction with the electric field gradient. By performing these experiments on C8A and C20A UIC, and after having a proper temperature calibration, a firm support for the validity of the MAS approach can be established by comparing the results with those from conventional static experiments.