Q&A with MagLab director, FSU alum Kathleen Amm on her vision after ‘wonderful homecoming’

Tallahassee’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Director Kathleen Amm — who has been serving as the facility’s new director for about three months so far — is living in a full-circle moment.

Her return to the capital comes after being a Florida State University graduate student in the late 1990s, and she even remembers helping to set up what was then a brand new FSU-headquartered MagLab.

“This has just been such a wonderful homecoming for me,” Amm, 52, said in a wide-ranging interview with the Tallahassee Democrat.

“Coming back 30 years later, I think FSU is just phenomenally poised right now to lead across a broad area of places that can have not just technological impact, and not just science impact, but a really great impact on the community here in North Florida.”

Amm, a Boston, Massachusetts native, graduated from the University of Toronto in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics before earning her doctoral degree in condensed matter physics from FSU in 1998. She also has two children and is currently engaged.

She started serving as the MagLab's director in May and succeeded Gregory Boebinger, who returned to the FSU faculty this summer after stepping down from his 20-year tenure of leading the MagLab.

More: FSU grad named new director of National MagLab in Tallahassee

Before joining the MagLab, the distinguished physicist was director of the Magnet Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. She led a team of scientists, engineers and technicians, where over 40 individuals directly reported to her.

Now, she oversees more than 500 scientists at FSU’s MagLab. And over 2,000 people from across the country come to the laboratory every year to perform experiments. The Tallahassee facility is one of 11 high magnetic field facilities in the world, according to a National Academies report.

Former FSU Physics Professor Kirby Kemper recalls working with Amm as she fulfilled her doctoral studies at the university. He says her work as a science student-turned-scientist is a fulfillment of the multidisciplinary research that takes place at the MagLab.

“It is a great thrill to have one of our students rise to the top of their field in cryogenics and magnet technologies, and then to have this student come back to take the lab into its next 30-year future,” Kemper told the Democrat in an email.

As Amm holds the title of being the facility’s new director, some of her top goals are to build stronger partnerships with companies and other national labs — such as the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Plainsboro, New Jersey, which she says the MagLab will partner with either at the end of this year or early 2025 for work on fusion technology.

Amm also looks forward to furthering research related to quantum computing, which involves the use of quantum mechanics to solve complex problems at a faster speed compared to traditional computers.

At the same time, she is aware of challenges that might stand in the way of those goals — including the fact that a stronger technology investment exists in countries such as China compared to the U.S., and the difficulty of getting more people interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

Despite the challenges, Amm says she has a “fantastic team” that she believes in to work toward reaching their goals.

Q&A with MagLab Director Kathleen Amm

Here's what Amm told the Democrat about her adjustment to the relatively new role, her vision for the renowned MagLab and more (some questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity):

Q: What has been your favorite part about Tallahassee in terms of spots that bring back old memories?

“I used to live off of Meridian Road back when I was a graduate student, so I drive by the apartment complex I lived in all the time and I love driving on the canopy road. They’re just so beautiful with the trees.

“Being here at the lab, I've been walking around and it's amazing to see the growth here. The labs were just developing when I was a graduate student, and now they're full of scientists and engineers. Also, when it comes to this whole Innovation Park area, I used to walk around the circle as a student, and it was not developed yet. There were only a couple of buildings, but now it's fully developed. It’s really exciting to see the economic impact and growth that's happened here over the last 30 years.”

Q: How have you been adjusting to this new role over the past few months?

“The team here has just been phenomenal from day one. They were incredibly welcoming. They actually even had a welcome breakfast the first day I was here. They've spent a lot of time getting me up to speed, and they've been very patient with me, which I really appreciate. I've been trying to run as fast as I can to get up to speed and make sure that I'm having an impact.”

Q: With the facility being the largest and highest-powered magnet lab in the world, what is your overall vision for moving it to even greater heights?

“At the highest level, we want to be the world's best high field magnet lab in the world, and we want to enable the best high field magnet science and technology to happen right here in North Florida. In addition to that, we want to make sure that we are using that capability to generate breakthrough science to not only be seen as leaders in the scientific community in the world, but to also develop the technologies of the future that are going to make our quality of life here in Florida and in the U.S. as high as it can be.”

Q: FSU’s Board of Trustees recently approved a $56 million request for next year’s legislative session to modernize the MagLab. How would you say the changes will help propel the facility forward?

“I think the impact is very critical. Yes, there is a facelift involved in it because we have furniture dating back to the beginning of the lab still in some of our offices, but it's a lot more than that. It's really about making this the No. 1 high magnetic field lab in the world and having the infrastructure in the facility to carry out our user program in the future. It’s about having it be robust and reliable so our users can come here and get the highest magnet fields in the world for their research. We're 30 years old, and we want to maintain the leadership that started 30 years ago. This investment is absolutely critical to the future.”

Q: How confident are you that the MagLab will be able to secure this funding?

“I look at the money that comes from the state of Florida and the (federal) government, and these are our taxpayer dollars, so we want to make sure that we're asking for things that are absolutely critical. I have full confidence in our legislators who are elected by all of us to take a look at it and look at all their priorities just like we do. I'm sure they're going to make the right decision.”

Q: What is your favorite place in the MagLab, and why?

“That's really hard. I don't really have a favorite — I just love them all. Part of the reason I took this job is because I've worked in the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) space, I've worked in solid state physics for my PhD and I've worked on accelerator magnets at Brookhaven National Labs. I really have spanned the breadth of the different areas of science and technology development that this lab is at the forefront of.”

Q: How do the MagLab's incredibly brainy researchers juggle with keeping a fun, upbeat environment?

“One of the things we're starting to do is more social events to get people together. We're also going to be having a BBQ this August. We try to do things like that for fun to really make this a MagLab family.”

Q: What personal strengths do you bring to the table from your past experiences in the field of magnet technology?

“I consider myself a servant leader. It's not about me. It's about the fantastic people that work here at the lab. I also have a very broad network in the magnet community — which I've been in for over 30 years — so I have connections across both the industry and the other national labs. Even within Europe, China and Japan, I know people in this space, and I bring that to the table as well to connect people to other leaders within the U.S. and around the globe.”

Q: Where do you see the MagLab in the next five years?

“I see us maintaining our leadership position in high magnetic field science, and I want to see us help the vision of becoming the magnetic capital of the world. A connection to the engineering community and businesses that need our technology is also very important to me, so I want to see that grow over the next five years as we're working on that across FSU.”

Q: Have you found a way to respond to the belief about the MagLab controlling the weather in Tallahassee?

“Well, we try to make it clear that we definitely don't control the weather! I know that's one of the myths that exists around the MagLab, but we just try to be factual about the statements. Magnetic fields do not control the weather.”

Contact Tarah Jean at [email protected] or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU alumna Kathleen Amm adjusts to new role as MagLab director