Graduated

I have now officially graduated from Whitman College with a B.A. degree in Physics and a minor in English. The stage has been walked, the President's hand shaken, and the guttural screams of joy and elation from my aunts, uncles, parents and everyone still echo in my ears, which is disturbing now that a month has gone by. While nursing my damaged eardrums back to health I've been furiously engaged in the "Post Graduate Job Search," more on this very very soon.

First I would like to quickly recap this past year. I've spent most of it studying for frightening exams, but in my free time I've hosted what I hoped was a mind-bending brain-blowing radio show entitled "Superconductors, Super Computers, and Super Mario" wherein I expounded on the most intriguing subject in the universe. Physics. I also dotted it with discussions about astronomy and technology, but everything ends up being physics anyways.

It was also my privilege to conduct research with Dr. Kurt Hoffman of Whitman College in his area of expertise, spectroscopy of doped aerogels. Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Despite my recently attained familiarity with spectroscopy, I still have an immense difficulty pronouncing that word with it's elusive c's and o's. Aerogels are artificially made solids that are incredibly good at scattering light, hence why we used them. Below is a picture of one.

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech - NASA Stardust Website

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In particular we examined spectroscopy readings of Erbium doped sol-gels shined with infrared light. Ultimately, the project was an excellent opportunity to use some pretty advanced equipment and be taught how to do so by an incredibly knowledgeable professor. My sincere thanks to Dr. Hoffman.

That sums it up on the scientific front. I've been steadily increasing my stack of resumes to particular companies. My focus is on achieving a science writing position, though I've also explored solar energy since I find this the most natural extension of the research I've been apart of as well as being a field that is incredibly fascinating. If you are still reading and your wondering what you'll read after this, I'll take the liberty of suggesting to you a couple subjects from my radio show.
Check out:
Quantum Dots and Solar Energy
Whatever SpaceX is doing today
Sean Carroll's book The Particle at the End of the Universe

Physics Major

Nearing the end of my semester here at Whitman and on the edge of senior year. Next year I'll be taking a full load of Quantum physics, Thermodynamics, Electricity and Magnetism, and either a course in solid state physics:electrical and optical properties or biophysics. Solid State Physics would lean more toward technological aspects of physics whereas biophysics interest me as potential for leading into some aspect of biotechnology. Either way it looks to be a fairly interesting senior year.

A quick update on my own educational path, I've decided to finish my B.A. at Whitman college, choosing not to pursue the 3-2 engineering program. I've enjoyed the study of physics as it relates to technology and will likely pursue engineering in the future in a masters program or in some way connected to a specialized field of physics (Marine or Bio).

This summer I plan to attend courses at the University of Washington, pursuing an interest of mine in English, for a potential English minor. That might seem a far stretch from physics and engineering. I'm not entirely sure if keeping both sides of your brain active is healthy, but I do believe in following all of your passions (as long as you limit yourself to two).

Cheers to UTA for being another outlet for an inquisitive brain.

Presentation at Murdock Science Conference

I'll be giving a presentation this coming weekend at the Murdock Science conference at Whitman College. The conference brings together more than 400 students and faculty from Northwest region colleges to present results from research projects they have worked on at their home institutions or elsewhere. About 20 Whitman students will present their research in the disciplines of biology, geology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. Faculty members do not present their own research, but the conference provides an opportunity to meet faculty from other institutions and discuss common concerns. It was a little difficult to get into the conference since my presentation does not have any actual research results, but the director consented to let me present so this coming weekend should be pretty interesting. Looking forward to it.

First Exam Coming Up

My first exam is coming up this week so I'm hard at work studying in the library. I was able to make a couple connections as far as giving a presentation here at the school and it looks as though I might be able to give a presentation to freshman to get them excited about physics. There was also some talk about a conference in Portland with some engineers who were looking for a student presentation. Notice they were looking for a student. This is just a simple example of what an REU can do for you when you suddenly become someone other people are looking for to give presentations. I'm not altogether sure my presentation is up to task for a conference presentation but I will certainly look into it.

Whitman College Starts Again

After a month break between my internship at the University of Arlington I have now just begun classes again at Whitman College. Today was the first day of classes which went smoothly enough. I'm getting the ball rolling on a presentation of my work in Arlington and it looks as though I will be presenting with a couple other of summer interns who did work elsewhere to freshmen at my college. The idea being to spark some physics nerds. My classes for this semester are twentieth century physics, linear algebra, differential equations, and a literary study on the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Nathanial Hawthorne. Even as a junior I still have distribution credits to get out of the way. I'm very excited about this year and cut down the number classes and freed up some time so that I can really give these classes the best I can. I also have two campus jobs. And on top of everything else I'm taking a fly-fishing course. Live large and boisterous.

Final Day presentation/Thankyous

All the presentation went very well. I enjoyed the soil expansion presentation the most seeing as how they had some very interesting data and there was a substantial amount of research done in their project. More so than the other projects. All the videos worked well in my powerpoint so it all went by smooth. I hope I kept the audience well entertained with my antics. This has been a very useful REU and I can definitely foresee everything I learned being very useful in my up coming classes. I only wish that there had  been more hands on. In my project in particular I believe that learning the concepts took too much precedence over hands on research. For me the REU felt a bit to much like attending class for my liking. However, I'm still pleased with my summer and am looking forward to continue my exploration of this field. After taking the architecture class I feel as though I might look into graduate studies in architecture, and if that ends up not being to my liking then a straight engineering pathway will be an excellent option as well. The people I would like to especially thank is Dr. Yazdani and Md Istiaque Hasan. They have been very instrumental in guiding my learning in the REU and I very much all the time they have spent with my partner and I in the project. Thank you as well to the University of Texas at Arlington for the excellent resources and accommodations.

Final Touches on PowerPoint Presentation

Spent the majority of the day going over my powerpoint over and over and over until I could repeat it by memory. I feel pretty comfortable about the presentation tomorrow, especially since I have had so much time to prepare for it. My only worry is in the videos, hopefully they all load correctly. My powerpoint is also 3 gigs which is incredibly large, though it's smaller than what it was before (5 gigs). All in all I hope it will go smooth and am very excited to get it all done and over with.