Home Institution: Drew University
Research Project: Quantum Computing with Trapped Ions
UW Mentor(s): Boris Blinov

Q: What are your physics/science interests?
I am interested in understanding the world in its entirety. Doing so reduces to understanding the smallest scale interactions and building up, so I am above all interested in the unification of quantum mechanics and relativity. I am also interested in applied atomic physics, especially quantum computing - I think quantum computing is a remarkably clever application of quantum mechanics.

Q: What are your other interests?
I like to play Magic: The Gathering and DoTA 2.

Q: What would you like to do after college?
After getting my undergraduate degree, I plan to go to graduate school in theoretical physics or quantum computing. After that, most likely more academia.

Q: Tell us one strange but interesting fact about yourself.
I once ate a family size bag of Cool Ranch Doritos in one sitting - I'd do it again if I had the chance.

Q: What first sparked your interest in Physics?
I've always wanted to understand the world as much as I could, so I've always been fascinated with what physics has revealed about nature. However, I started my undergraduate degree thinking I'd be a math major, so I'd have to say it was my freshman year physics professor, Jim Supplee, who first sparked my interest in pursuing physics.

Q: If you could have any pet what would it be?
I really want to have a pet owl. I'm not really sure why, because I'm not sure what taking care of a pet owl entails or if it's practical, but I think it would be a pretty cool pet. Also, Harry Potter has a pet owl, and I don't know anyone that owns one and isn't a wizard, so magical powers would be pretty cool too.

Q: If you had a free month and unlimited funds, how would you spend your time?
I think I would travel the world, in particular to China. I've been to China before and can speak a little bit of Chinese, but I have only been to cities and would really like to see places and meet people in parts of rural China.

Q: If you could get a grant to study anything what would it be?
I think I'm lucky enough to say I would study what I'm studying right now. Alternatively, I'd also be interested in studying how the brain works, and understand what kind of physics and mathematics goes into a working theory of consciousness.