Get Ready to 14–16 Nov 2019 Make Waves At
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the SPSVolume LII, Issue 3 ObserverWINTER 2019 Providence, RI Get ready to 14–16 Nov 2019 make waves at + Roberto Ramos: Empowering future scientists + Kirtley Watts combines physics and food + Build your own hovercraft Events for Undergrads Coming to Boston? Join us for the SPS Undergrad Meet & Greet, the Awards Reception, and more! Joining us in Denver? March 4–8, 2019 Be sure to check out the Grad School panel Boston, MA and the Awards Brunch! FPD events include: APRIL MEETING 2019 • Undergrad research sessions • Professional development quarks cosmos workshops • Networking and social activities • Free t-shirt Q2C April 13-16, 2019 and more - just for undergrads! Denver, CO LEARN MORE: go.aps.org/fpd Join us in 2019 for Future of Physics Days (FPD) at the March and April meetings! TABLE OF CONTENTS the SPS Observer WINTER 2019 • VOLUME LII, ISSUE 3 Editor Rachel Kaufman FEATURES the Making Waves and Breaking Boundaries . 14 SPSVolume LII, Issue 3 ObserverWINTER 2019 Managing Editor Jocelyn Bell Burnell Returns to PhysCon . 15 Kerry Kidwell-Slak Providence, RI Such Great Heights: Sandeep Giri . 16 Get ready to 14–16 Nov 2019 Contributing Editors make waves Skye Haynes A Nobelist’s Next Move: John Mather . 17 at Kendra Redmond Dr . First: Jami Valentine Miller . 18 Copy Editor Energizing Change: Ellen Williams . 19 Cynthia Freeman PhysCon 2019 Highlights . 20 Art Director Making the Most of PhysCon . 24 + Roberto Ramos: Empowering future scientists + Kirtley Watts combines physics and food Aaron Auyeung The Dos & Don’ts of Fundraising for PhysCon . 26 + Build your own hovercraft Events for Undergrads Layout Designer ON THE COVER Hyun Joo Kim DEPARTMENTS Mark your calendars for SPS President November 14–16, 2019, for PhysCon 2019, the largest Alina Gearba-Sell, LETTER gathering of undergraduate US Air Force Academy One Interaction at a Time . 5 Coming to Boston? physics and astronomy SPS Director PATHWAYS students in the country! Join us for the SPS Undergrad Meet & Greet, Brad R. Conrad Photo credit: GoProvidence.com. the Awards Reception, and more! PhysCon Is a Congress—Each Student Has a Voice . 6 ALUMNI CAREER SPOTLIGHT Joining us in Denver? Kirtley Watts . 7 March 4–8, 2019 Be sure to check out the Grad School panel STARS Boston, MA Outstanding Chapter Advisor & Outstanding Chapter Awards . 8 and the Awards Brunch! 1 Physics Ellipse College Park, MD 20740 PHYSICS PUZZLER 301.209.3007 (tel) The Physics of Pumpkin Chucking, Part 2 . 10 APRIL MEETING 2019 301.209.0839 (fax) FPD events include: [email protected] BUILDING BLOCKS www.spsnational.org How I Built a Hovercraft . 12 • Undergrad research sessions • Professional development quarks cosmos INTERACTIONS workshops A Collaborative Cosmic Triptych . 13 • Networking and social activities A Week of Physics “Phun” at Marshall University . 28 • Free t-shirt Q2C SINGULARITIES April 13-16, 2019 A Better Way of Explaining Physics: Dr . Roberto Ramos named and more - just for undergrads! Denver, CO 2018 SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor . 29 Find SPS National on: IN THE ZONE Planes, Planets, and Plenty of Physics at the SPS Zone 11 Fall Meeting . 30 LEARN MORE: go.aps.org/fpd The SPS Observer (ISSN 2160- The American Institute of Physics is a federation of scientific AIP Member Societies: 1305) is the magazine of the Society societies in the physical sciences, representing scientists, engineers, American Association of Physicists in Medicine of Physics Students, published educators, and students. AIP offers authoritative information, American Association of Physics Teachers quarterly by the American Institute services, and expertise in physics education and student programs, American Astronomical Society of Physics. Printed in the USA. science communication, government relations, career services, American Crystallographic Association Standard postage paid at Freeport, statistical research in physics employment and education, industrial American Meteorological Society OH. POSTMASTER: Send address outreach, and history of the physical sciences. AIP publishes Physics American Physical Society changes to The SPS Observer, One Today, the most closely followed magazine of the physical sciences Acoustical Society of America Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD community, and is also home to the Society of Physics Students and AVS: Science & Technology of Materials, 20740-3841. the Niels Bohr Library and Archives. AIP owns AIP Publishing LLC, a Interfaces, and Processing Join us in 2019 for Future of Physics Days (FPD) scholarly publisher in the physical and related sciences. www.aip.org The Optical Society The Society of Rheology at the March and April meetings! Other Member Organizations: Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society Society of Physics Students Corporate Associates ADMISSION DEADLINES? BIG OR SMALL DEPARTMENT? DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVITY? What’s important to you in a graduate school? THEORETICAL, EXPERIMENTAL OR COMPUTATIONAL? Got these questions on your mind? GradSchoolShopper.com has the answers! Phoebe, SPS Intern 2018, Rhodes College LETTER One Interaction at a Time by Brad R. Conrad, Director of SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma I believe that it takes a special University of Tampa to work with them on their newly formed chapter kind of person to be up at and was pleasantly surprised to see their chapter advertising itself as a 3 a.m. working on impossible “physics family” on fliers . I spent the afternoon with the chapter, working integrals so that you can on homework, physics trivia,3 and finding the nearest open coffee shop… prove that the energy levels of It felt like home . When I was at Gettysburg College4 this fall, we talked ADMISSION the harmonic oscillator are, in about how to capture the best pictures at the observatory with a cell DEADLINES? fact, quantized. I also believe phone and how we could make sure incoming freshmen felt welcome in BIG OR SMALL that solving them provides a the department . While these chapters are about 1000 miles apart, they special type of satisfaction! share common experiences . It’s these experiences that connect us, and DEPARTMENT? If it weren’t for the sense of we often don’t even realize it until we come together . This is why PhysCon DIVERSITY AND community and fellowship is so special… It’s like meeting long-lost friends you never knew you had INCLUSIVITY? my SPS friends gave me, I’d and finally having a room full of people who get you . have never made it past Math Methods, much less E&M I. It’s not easy being a physics student, (And, for the record, I am still not a huge fan of optics… Sorry, Dr. Kotlarchyk.) and we need to be there for each other. However, it wasn’t just early morning homework set scrambles that What’s got me through undergrad . It was selling pizza1 so we could buy a One of the lasting impacts of Sigma Pi Sigma (ΣΠΣ) is that, in the important to you in coffeemaker and new soda fridge for the SPS lounge . It was having United States, most physics and astronomy departments have a club, (more or less) the entire department contact me after my father passed group, or cohort that students can make all their own (other regions of away, and it was knowing that none of us went to bed until we all finished the world are set up differently) .5,6 While ΣΠΣ, the physics honor society, a graduate school? our senior research PowerPoints . We ran tutoring sessions for freshmen helped form the Society of Physics Students 50 years ago, the core THEORETICAL, and attended graduating seniors’ cap and gown ceremonies when reasons for ΣΠΣ’s existence haven’t changed in almost 100 years: It’s not EXPERIMENTAL OR their parents couldn’t come . While excellence in physics is important, easy being a physics student, and we need to be there for each other . fellowship and service are the hallmarks of some of the best department When I tell people about what I do, a response that regularly comes COMPUTATIONAL? groups, and that’s highlighted when we come together at every up (mostly from non-physics/astronomy types) is, “Why is SPS special?” ΣΠΣ-supported Physics Congress. If you ever ask me, I’ll probably have one of two answers for you . First, it’s The Physics Congress, or PhysCon, began as a national convention one big, emergent family . And second, we change lives, one interaction designed to bring together the departments and students who wanted at a time . PhysCon can help you along your career path, and just might to support each other’s successes 2. We honor that legacy to this day change your or someone else’s life . // by continuing to host PhysCon . While many things happen at a Physics Got these questions Congress, one of the most important is the formation or extension of your physics community . Students and faculty from across the United 1 Robertson, Physics and Pizza: Joining a Global Community of on your mind? States (and beyond) come together to discuss shared issues, work on Scientists, (2017) https://www.spsnational.org/the-sps-observer/ societal problems, and learn about the broader community of which fall/2017/physics-and-pizza-joining-global-community-scientists. GradSchoolShopper.com they are members . PhysCon strives to help students develop a sense 2. P. Dixon, The History of Sigma Pi Sigma, (1996) has the answers! of fellowship through not just a shared experience (awesome talks https://www.sigmapisigma.org/sigmapisigma/about/history. and breakouts), but by having people learn and work together . This 3. https://www.spsnational.org/programs/outreach/physics-jeopardy. emulates what happens at the department and, more importantly, the 4. http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/physics/student-opportunities/ student level . While the professional development may be helpful, the society-of-physics-students.dot. connections and memories you make will last a lifetime . PhysCon works 5.