School: Georgia Tech
REU Faculty Mentor: Hans-Werner
Hammer
Q: What are your physics/science interests? As far as physics goes, I find it hard to pick a favorite discipline. I
love doing statistical mechanics because it’s nice and close to experiment
which keeps a theorist honest. I have also had the privilege of working in
atomic physics with Bose-Einstein condensates and they are very cool. I have
been fascinated with the geometrical picture of gravity in general relativity
for quite some time plus the theory features tensors prominently. Lots of
tensors. And tensors are cool.
Quantum field theory is another fascinating subject and there’s nothing
like "operator valued distributions on Minkowski space" to really get your
blood going. The whole quantum computer scene is very groovy, as is just about
anything quantum. In fact, just about anything not quantum is pretty groovy as
well. I guess this is why physics is super awesome. Oh, and there is always
string theory and loop quantum gravity and non-commutative geometry. I think I
secretly like what those guys and gals are doing (don’t tell anyone), but they
sure do wander pretty far off the experimental reservation sometimes. Q: What are your other interests? I rather enjoy history with my favorite subjects being World War 2, Ancient
Rome, Japan, and the United States. Philosophical debate? From political
theory to human nature I’m always up for a friendly discussion. I speak
Japanese fairly well and I have been to Japan. Musically, my interests range
from Rammstein to Gorecki to Jars of Clay. And I wouldn’t want to
forgot my fondness for killing games: my current vice is Unreal Tournament 2004.
Q: What would you like to do after college? Q: Tell us one strange yet interesting fact about yourself?
Well, I’ll comment on
the big three. Physics is super awesome, and I’ll come back to it. Biology I
like, its nice and complicated, has cuddly animals, and where else can you
study spiders that cook their prey on the burning desert sand? Now that’s
style! I won’t say much about chemistry since everyone knows it’s just applied
physics (that’s a joke in case there are any chemists in the audience), though
blowing chemicals up is cool and who can say no to good ole’ acid base
titration.
Like non-physics interests?
Yeah, I got some of those when I found out that the people I have to get
funding from don’t do physics all day. I love to backpack and camp, and the
Appalachian mountains are my stomping ground. I also do some occasional scuba
diving, though I haven’t been in quite some time. I love to read (it turns out
some people don’t), and my favorite books include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest by Ken Kesey, The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, and The Republic by
Plato. I am also a Christian and so the Bible is another big favorite.
I was planning on
heading off to physics graduate school after college, but I just found out
that the Earth is flat and the moon landing was faked so I guess physics
is wrong. I think I’ll go anyway. Not really sure yet what particular field of
physics I want to enter (see Section 2), but I definitely plan on getting my
PhD. After grad school I will hopefully be off to teach and research at some
university as I don’t think industry is for me. Naturally I plan to win the Nobel Prize, and I think world
domination was on my list as well.
I am
completely obsessed with Japanese Snow
Monkeys. These little guys are among to cutest and most cuddly animals out
there, and they are highly intelligent. Biologists tell us that Japanese Snow
Monkeys have a highly developed sense of community. A great example is the
potato story, where Japanese snow monkeys learned to wash potatoes. After a
researcher demonstrated the washing of a potato in fresh water, a single
Japanese Snow Monkey followed suit. After discovering the flavorful
enhancement brought by washing, the monkey told his (her) friends. Within a
few years, every snow monkey in Japan was washing potatoes. In addition, snow
monkeys know how to deal with winter. Most birds fly many miles south when
winter comes, and many humans spend thousands of dollars for beach homes in
Florida, but what do snow monkeys do? They jump in the hot tub! Now that’s
intelligence. I am fairly certain Japanese Snow Monkeys will have created
advanced calculus within fifteen years.
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