School: University of Texas at Austin
REU Faculty Mentor: Kurt Snover and Derek Storm
Q: What are your physics/science interests?
A: Truthfully, coming into college I wanted simply to study astronomy and try my hand at making that into a career. I have been in love with the field as long as I can remember and having spent some part of my childhood living in a remote area in southern Texas where the skies are still dark, I have a passion for wondering about the universe. Well, I admit that this passion suits a scientist just fine, but I have also tried to approach college realistically. Therefore I decided to study physics (i.e. major in it) and try to lean more towards the astrophysical areas. So first of all, what aspects of astronomy interest me? I am definitely a high-energy person; I lean towards the solar life cycle and fusion processes which fuel stars. These comprise a variety of areas of study of which I find late stellar evolution and stellar deaths the most interesting. Not that you care, but UT Austin happens to be a good place for studying things like supernovae and black holes (i.e. Craig Wheeler and Karl Gebhardt). Anyway, particle physics is also very interesting to me as well as important in the study of the above areas of astronomy. Enough said. To summarize: my interests in physics centers mostly along the lines of nuclear and particle physics.
Q: What are your other interests?
A: When I am not doing physics, there is a 90% chance of finding me doing one of two things: either writing or playing the guitar. First, guitar is a hobby that evolved early on in my life somewhat naturally from having a father who, once upon a time, was a rock musician. He is now a semi-retired antiques dealer working primarily out of the nice comfortable room I once inhabited. Go figure! Writing is a very serious hobby of mine that became such almost three years ago when I told my parents I was not going to work during the summer. When asked what I would do instead, I rattled off to my parents several ridiculous summer projects I might undertake, one of which was to write a book. Well, I read The Lord of the Rings for the gazillionth time, and then The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams and decided to give it a go. So by the end of the summer I wrote a full novel about a character modeled after me, and since then writing has been a way to relieve stress etc. Interestingly enough, I still had to get a job that summer (counting losing my room to my father, that’s Parents: 2 vs. Justin: 0), but the job was working in a biology lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center and it was there that I realized I did not want to become a biologist (making way for physics). So writing science fiction stories (trying to publish) is my major non-science hobby.
Q: What would you like to do after college?
A: I do not know exactly what I want to study and obviously have little idea where I want to go, but graduate school is more than likely in my future. In actuality, last year I made a specific decision not to graduate this spring so that I could have more time to prepare for graduate school. This was a major motivation to leave the University of Texas this summer and find some research elsewhere, like Washington. I am hoping that this summer will allow me to get a better idea of what I want to do after college. After graduate school, I cannot say for certain what I want to do. It is my long-term goal to obtain a PhD and try to snag a spot at some university somewhere. But clearly, who knows what’s ahead?
Q: Tell us one strange yet interesting fact about yourself?
A: Some people might find it strange/interesting that someone who is completely devoted to science and proof can also be completely devoted to speculation and fantasy. Science fiction is not science. Obviously I try to keep my stories based on at least this universe, but I like to think about unphysical possibilities. What if we could violate special relativity, etc? Also, I don’t know if it is interesting or not, but looking at the kind of person I am now, my life is dominated by an obsession with physics/math and writing. Now, when I was growing up, there were always two subjects I hated more than any other, and guess what they were: math and rhetoric. I was always a decent student I think, but I sure hated those two subjects all the way until I got into high school.
