Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University (APSU) physics graduate Amaya Caudel has been selected for a prestigious summer internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, marking another milestone in her impressive research career.
Caudel, who completed three Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs during her time as an undergraduate, will be working on computational materials research focusing on titanium aluminum. Her project will leverage the speed of machine learning algorithms by training them off of highly accurate Density Functional Theory (DFT) outputs.
Taking just a few data points for the phase of this material using the time-costly DFT method, the machine learning algorithm will be able to construct an entire phase diagram, making up to tens of thousands of points in a fraction of the time.
The opportunity came through Jared Averitt, a Los Alamos researcher and APSU alumnus who specifically returned to campus to recruit talent from his alma mater.
Caudel’s research journey has been marked by recognition and achievement. Her first REU at Vanderbilt University in Summer 2022 under Dr. Sokrates Pantelides involved studying biphenylene, a material similar to graphene, as a potential filter for batteries.
This research explored how different elements pass through the material’s structure and how manipulating the material through stretching or compression could potentially function as an on/off switch in battery applications. Her results were shared at the Tennessee Academy of Science conference, where her poster presentation was awarded first place.
In Summer 2023, Caudel participated in a Computational Biology REU at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, under Dr. Yu Liang, working on converting her own biometric data into music as a therapeutic tool. Her third REU in Summer 2024 at the University of Alabama, Birmingham with Dr. Fei Xue focused on simulating Europium Zinc Arsenide under pressure, with her poster winning first place at the UAB Research Symposium.
While at APSU, Caudel worked extensively with Dr. Eugene Donev on her capstone project investigating butterfly wing nanostructures. Unlike most butterflies that get their color from pigments, the Blue Morpho butterfly’s vibrant blue comes from structural color—nanoscale divots that cause light to interfere with itself, canceling out all wavelengths except blue.
“We’re finding different geometries to produce other colors, specifically red, because red’s not common as a structural color,” Caudel said.
She plans to continue this research alongside her Los Alamos internship this summer, with the goal of publishing a scientific paper. Her work on this project earned her second place when presented at the Tennessee Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers conference in April 2025.
Caudel credits her autism with giving her an affinity for the detailed, pattern-focused work required in computational physics.
“I think I really like repetitive action; it’s kind of soothing for me,” she said. “I can just get into the process of doing the same thing over and over again and get into a rhythm.”
The adversity Caudel fought through during her Austin Peay career is a testament to her driven personality.
“I have fibromyalgia, so simply pinching a screwdriver or wiring a circuit board together is physically painful on my fingers,” she said. “A lot of people with my diagnosis would go on disability and stay home; some days, it’s hard for me to do much more than get out of bed; I just have to work extra hard on my better days to make up for those times when I can’t do anything.”
Despite her struggles, Caudel’s dedication to her field has become a powerful motivator.
“I feel like I’m a pretty tough cookie,” she said. “Physics is my passion and it makes me happy, the joy I feel when a task comes together or when I put together a really good lab report.”
Throughout her academic career at APSU, Caudel has maintained excellence, making the Dean’s List for eight of nine semesters and receiving numerous scholarships, including the Honors Scholarship, Achievement Academic Honors Scholarship, John R. Corley Science Scholarship, and Larry & Felicia Gates Physics Scholarship. In April 2025, she was awarded the Robert F. Sears Physics/Astronomy Award in recognition of her excellence in the sciences.
Following her summer at Los Alamos, Caudel will begin her Ph.D. program in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, where she plans to continue her focus on computational research. She has been awarded a Provost Fellowship, which provides $10,000 service-free per year for five years.
About the Austin Peay State University College of STEM
The Austin Peay State University College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) provides studies for students in the areas of agriculture, astronomy, aviation sciences, biology, chemistry, computer science, earth and environmental sciences, engineering physics, engineering technology, information technology, mathematics, medical laboratory sciences, radiologic sciences and physics.
Our outstanding, discipline-based programs are student-centered and designed to prepare students for responsible positions at all levels of research, industry, education, medicine and government.
