Home Institution: Missouri State University
Research Project: Computational Condensed Matter Theory and Response Functions: Real-time and Real-space Methods for Complex Systems
UW Mentor(s): John Rehr

Q: What are your physics/science interests?
As your average curious human, science as a whole is where my identity resides. Science taught me to question and adapt to reality, through experimenting and modelling. My preference, I believe, is the modeling component of science, because of how gratifying it is to confirm my understanding of the world. Specifically in physics, I love studying geometric theories of nature and/or geometric structures that arise in theories as these seem to be the most natural and intuitive to our understanding. General relativity is the most obvious example of a beautiful geometric theory that perfectly explains many phenomena in its domain, and is something I would love to study given the opportunity. On the other hand, field and gauge theories such as QFTs and string theories also pique my interest due to their subtle complexities and intricate framework.

Q: What are your other interests?
Currently, I've been getting more and more serious with ping pong (because I'm terrible at real sports). I also tend to dabble in the contemporary dark arts of outdoor living, such as backpacking, camping, and rock-climbing. They make for great introspective retreats from mind-consuming everyday life. In the long(er) term, however, designing and building computers has been a hobby of mine since I learned about PC games in 4th grade (though I did break more than build for the first few years).

Q: What would you like to do after college?
After college, I'm considering 3 different things: Shooting straight for grad school after my one-semester break, taking another year off for travelling around, or using that extra year for work. All three options seem very reasonable to me, as I've been a student for quite a long time but would still appreciate a break.

Q: Tell us one strange but interesting fact about yourself.
I learned how to and solved a Rubik's cube for the first time during this REU program, with the help of a fellow student, Hava Schwartz.

Q: What first sparked your interest in Physics?
The onset of my interest in physics was initiated with my realization that math and physics were the most intriguing subjects in school, and I was already decent with math. Popular physics did the rest of the job by pulling me in with mention of black holes and extra dimensions. Before I knew it, I had become an avid reader of popular physics articles and was lucky enough to start college early enough to major in physics while my passion was first being kindled.

Q: If you could have any pet what would it be?
A white tiger is the most realistic exotic pet to own, aside from dragons, of which I own 3. All jokes aside, my dragons were definitely a great investment. Even though the leftover-carcasses do sometimes get annoying to clean up after, they're just the most adorable little monsters ever!

Q: If you had a free month and unlimited funds, how would you spend your time?
I would not travel the world and see everything, because then what will I be looking for throughout the rest of my life? I think I would pick a specific country (probably Iceland), and tour that country like a king with all my friends! It would be glorious. I would also dabble in every expensive hobby I know of.

Q: If you could get a grant to study anything what would it be?
I would attempt to uncover methods for using new mathematical techniques to work on previously studied areas of physics, and computationally analyze the new routes for hidden gems.