Newport News and Physics!

This was my second time in Newport News and I was very excited to return.  I knew I would be reuniting with a few of the undergraduate friends that I had made while I was working at Jefferson Lab over the summer and that I would see some of the graduate students I had met as well.  I did not expect to make so many new friends and connections over the last few days, especially since I was nearly dying of exhaustion on Thursday (lesson learned about red-eye flights).  I really enjoyed seeing everyone's posters and hearing about their research.  It was also a great pleasure to hear a few of my friends give talks!  I hope everyone had as great of a time as I did and I hope everyone has as much fun catching up on their coursework as I will!  Thanks to everyone who made this conference special!  Thank you Dr. Rogers for organizing such a wonderful event!

Hopefully I will see some of you guys next year!

Keep in touch!

Linking In

LinkedIn is a great professional social medium, both for overt networking, but also for the serendipitous exposure to articles on just about everything.  There I found links to an interesting article on "The Need for Belonging in Math and Science" that describes research very close to the heart of the DNP CEU mission.  The article is directed more toward perspectives of minority groups in STEM and "negative stereotype threat," but everyone can question their role, future and fit in their professional community in the dawn of a career, especially around advanced course exams or the phase transition between student and independent researcher.  Looking back on conversations I have had with several dozen bright, promising and sometimes freakishly sharp physics peers who have since left for greener pastures in various industries, it rings true.

The bottom line of the article is this: our sense of belonging matters.   Early connections and acceptance are powerful influences on the trajectory of any career, including STEM careers.  Likewise, a lack of connection or acceptance shapes our decisions in finding careers.  Programs like Conference Experiences for Undergraduates are a step in the right direction, providing an early introduction to the broader experience of sharing our work and learning from colleagues.  I've always felt like the poster sessions were a sociologists dream petri dish.  Personal dynamics are as much at work as the physics content, maybe more so.

I am curious as to what impressions the CEU students are taking away from Newport News, as they look back.  Do they feel any differently about what they want to do when they graduate?  Better?  Worse?  Do they feel any differently about their research supervisors or their own work?

R&D

a SQUID

My interest in physics grows from curiosity about nature, applications or no, but I can't help feeling a thrill when I see the esoteric technologies physicists puzzle over finding unexpected uses in the wider world. Over the summers of '09 and '10, I interned in San Francisco State's Cryogenic Electronics Group (CEG, led by Prof. Barbara Neuhauser), a team specializing in R&D of superconducting detectors like SQUIDs and Superconducting Tunnel Junctions (STJs), devices based on the electron tunneling physics of Josephson Junctions. The CEG builds these devices, one thin film at a time, solely for their research applications in WIMP searches and X-ray spectroscopy of enzymes, respectively. Back then, I never imagined that in a few years I'd hear a talk on SQUIDs scanning people's airplane luggage, or serving as a cheaper alternative to MRI.
Nevertheless, Michelle Espy's plenary talk, "Taming the SQUID: How a nuclear physics education (mostly) helped my career in applied physics," described just that. I couldn't help but feel a thrill, seeing first-hand the ways that science for science's sake ripples out into ordinary life.

Flying East to Newport News

catching a red-eye at SFO

Two nights ago, I climbed aboard the crown jewel of 19th century transportation, screaming down the California coast from UC Davis to San Francisco. Last night, I took off on the 20th century's own revolutionary high-speed vehicle, covering about 40 times the distance in just 3x the time, arriving early in Newport News, Virginia, for the 2013 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics. Tonight, after taking in a handful of talks and brushing shoulders with a multitude of brilliant minds, I can't help but wonder whether any of the work being discussed here this week will, in some distant future, propel women and men venturing out into the cosmos at insane speeds, speeds sufficient for relativistic effects to contract the far reaches of the known universe to within one lifetime's journey away.

Nuclear pulse engines aren't my area of expertise, but they are a lot of fun to think about. I might seem a bit of an outsider here, presenting research on neutrino physics, but neutrinos and nuclear are so deeply intertwined—I think I'll feel right at home.

We just arrived into Newport News about an hour ago (myself and my two students Sierra and Nathaniel).  We had a long trip, all the way from Santa Barbara, CA, three flights in all.  Then a short drive from the Norfolk airport.  Happy to be here, looking forward to seeing people tomorrow and hearing the plenary talks.  I'm looking forward to the posts and pictures others contribute!