CURF Ends, Research Continues

Hi all! This is my third (and final) blog post on my CURF research. You can find the second and first here. The featured image on this post is me presenting my research at the physics department spring poster session. Presenting research is really cool, particularly getting to talk to people who are knowledgable about…

Researching Researchers and Researching Research

Hi all, this is a continuation of my first blog post, which I would recommend reading before this one, that you can find here. Finding research is easy (probably not absolutely true, but seems to be true in most cases). Finding good research is hard (I think of good research as having two aspects: being…

How Stars Shed Light on Dark Matter

Hi, my name is Ethan Lilie and I am a junior majoring in physics and minoring in math. I currently do research under Dr. Andrew Zentner in the field of theoretical cosmology (which basically means how the universe evolves over time). My research is on the effects of spin-independent dark matter on stellar evolution, which…

Let’s Talk About Research- Effectively

Sharing your research can feel difficult for a myriad of reasons such as fear of miscommunication, worry over your audience understanding your project and finding it interesting, imposter syndrome, and putting your hard work into a position to be critiqued. Learning some strategies to effectively communicate my research has made the task of sharing it…

Emily Forsyth and Out-of-this-World Research

About Me My name is Emily Forsyth and I am a rising Junior. I am majoring in Physics and Astronomy on the graduate school path and I am also pursuing a minor in the Classics. I fell in love with physics because I enjoy the creativity the subject allows for in solving problems. I have…

Reflecting on my CURF Experience

Conducting research can be a challenging endeavor. I was not sure what to expect when I began researching with Professor Hong’s group this year; all I knew is that I was interested in the work. When I first began working on my project this semester, I took a long time to do everything, because I…

Leaving PHYS 0476…Again

Over the past semester, I have learned a great many things about teaching. Most importantly that it is extremely stressful. Simply speaking in front of a crowd of faces, only a few of which I can confidently say that I know, is quite nerve racking. This semester was made significantly easier by the fact that…

My Story of Becoming a Researcher

I took the Honors Physics 2 course, PHYS 0476, with Dr. Hong in the spring of my freshman year. I remember going to one of his first office hours in the beginning of the semester and asking him about his research. It was not my intention to start researching with him, as I already had…