{"id":46078,"date":"2024-06-11T14:21:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T18:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/?post_type=news&p=46078"},"modified":"2024-06-11T14:21:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T18:21:18","slug":"good-vibrations","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Vibrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article appeared in the JHU Engineering Magazine<\/a> Summer 2024 edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

A pioneer in the field of organic electronics and photonics,\u00a0<\/span>Howard Katz<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>occasionally turns to his trusty cello to provide his engineering students with an object lesson in wave vibration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many connections between musical instruments and materials science,\u201d says Katz, a\u00a0<\/span>materials science and engineering<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>professor, who most recently performed Robert Schumann\u2019s cello concerto for students in his Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials class.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany instruments incorporate carefully designed materials to generate the sound and amplify it,\u201d he explains. \u201cFor example, the bow hair has a very complicated structure of tiny fibers that grab the strings and cause them to vibrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katz\u2019s perfect pitch\u2014the ability to recognize and imitate exact musical notes\u2014sparked an initial interest in the piano.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot remember a time that I could not play the piano by ear\u2026. Around age 8, I began taking piano lessons,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe school I attended in West Orange, New Jersey, had one piano, and many students wanted to be piano players in the orchestra. I decided to pick an orchestra instrument so I could always be in the orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n

He soon began studying the cello, igniting a passion for performance that continued into adulthood. While earning degrees in chemistry and music theory from MIT, Katz was the lead cellist for the MIT Symphony Orchestra, playing in trios and quartets throughout college. He still finds opportunities to play, both inside and outside the classroom.<\/p>\n

In June, Katz often joins the Baltimore Symphony Academy, a weeklong program that brings amateur artists together with professional musicians in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for side-by-side rehearsals and performances.<\/p>\n

To Katz, participation in the academy is equivalent to playing in the Major League. \u201cFor some people it\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime dream to do this, to say that they had a Major League Baseball experience,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky, being in Baltimore. I get to do it every year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-46078","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGood Vibrations - Department of Materials Science & Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good Vibrations - Department of Materials Science & Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article appeared in the JHU Engineering Magazine Summer 2024 edition. A pioneer in the field of organic electronics and photonics,\u00a0Howard Katz\u00a0occasionally turns to his trusty cello to provide his…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Materials Science & Engineering\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good Vibrations - Department of Materials Science & Engineering","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good Vibrations - Department of Materials Science & Engineering","og_description":"This article appeared in the JHU Engineering Magazine Summer 2024 edition. A pioneer in the field of organic electronics and photonics,\u00a0Howard Katz\u00a0occasionally turns to his trusty cello to provide his…","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/","og_site_name":"Department of Materials Science & Engineering","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/","name":"Good Vibrations - Department of Materials Science & Engineering","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-06-11T18:21:18+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/good-vibrations\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Good Vibrations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/","name":"Department of Materials Science & Engineering","description":"Department of Materials Science & Engineering","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Department of Materials Science & Engineering","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}