Nitride semiconductors like GaN and AlN are at the heart of modern LEDs, power electronics, and RF devices, but producing large, high-quality crystals of them remains a genuinely hard materials problem. I work on growing bulk nitrides using lithium flux, a molten salt approach that sidesteps some of the extreme pressures and temperatures that other methods require. The core challenge is understanding how flux composition and thermal history translate into crystal size and quality, which means a lot of iterative experimental design and troubleshooting. That kind of systematic problem solving in a high-temperature processing environment is something I find transfers well beyond any one material system.