Physics Specialist Program

Year of Study: 4th

Why did you decide to major in Physics? What was your inspiration?

I’ve always been fascinated with how the world works, and physics has allowed me to start exploring and answering the questions I’ve had about our universe since childhood. In 8th grade, I decided to do an inquiry project on black holes; I remember stumbling across arXiv and spending hours and hours trying to piece together enough knowledge to read through the most introductory parts of a paper. I had never been more confused or more excited about physics, and in that moment, I decided I wanted to spend my life trying to better understand the world around us. In my first year here, I began attending the departmental colloquia, and was met with the familiar feeling of confusion and ever building excitement about working towards understanding more about the physical world. Since then, there's been no looking back!

What do you enjoy most about the physics program?

I really appreciate the amount of passion every single faculty member has, about both their research and their commitment to teaching. Professors are consistently so willing and eager to share their research and love of physics with students, which has cultivated a really welcoming and inspiring environment to be a part of. Both the teaching and research stream professors put so much care into crafting engaging courses that not only give students a high quality education but make them genuinely excited to show up and learn about the material.

I’ve also really enjoyed the encouragement the department places on going to the departmental colloquia, regardless of your knowledge level. I’ve been attending the colloquia since first year and it’s been a great way to begin getting exposed to a diverse spread of current, cutting-edge research.

What other extra-curricular activities are you involved in during your degree?

In my second year, I became involved with the Undergraduate Physics Student Union (PhySU) as the VP Secretary. This past year I have served as the President. I remember initially being hesitant to get involved with student government; looking back, I could not be more glad that I decided to join the executive team. I have been so lucky to work alongside a strong team of individuals who deeply care for the physics student body and are passionate about trying to improve the undergraduate physics experience in any way possible. Serving on PhySU’s executive team has been a great opportunity to become more involved with the department and connect with both the student body and faculty members. 

Working towards cultivating a welcoming environment amongst our student body and helping to provide new opportunities for undergraduates in our department has been incredibly rewarding. This year we have really focused on trying to help connect students with faculty and make research opportunities more accessible through workshops, information sessions, and increased opportunities to connect with professors on a more personal level. We’ve also instituted a mentorship program that connects incoming first year students with upper year mentors to guide them throughout their journey in first year. I vividly remember how overwhelming my first year was, and being able to support students in their transition to university has been such a wonderful experience.

This past year I’ve also worked as a MAT135 and MAT136 Teaching Assistant within UofT’s Department of Mathematics. Teaching has been such a fulfilling experience, and it has been an incredible opportunity to watch students become more confident in their mathematical ability and to help students understand concepts I remember struggling with in my first year.

What are your research interests?

My main research interests are within atomic physics and theoretical astrophysics. In other words, if something is either really really big, or really really small, I’ll probably be interested in it! Within atomic physics, I am particularly interested in quantum entanglement and quantum information. In astrophysics, I am interested in problems pertaining to black holes and compact objects. I am specifically interested in the black hole information paradox and black hole merger events. More broadly, I hope to explore how fundamental physics manifests in extreme environments.

This year, I have been doing a computational research project in Professor Brumer’s group studying ultracold collisions between a hyperfine excited Strontium Fluoride molecule and a Rubidium-87 atom. We are particularly interested in investigating using coherent control as a mechanism for suppressing relaxation processes within this collision. Through this project, we explored using symmetry to help preserve the strength of the control.

Over the upcoming summer I will be joining Professor Drout’s group on a project involving cosmic explosions, focusing on collisions, flares and their environments as a mechanism for exploring general relativity, radiative transfer theory and the origin of heavy elements.

What is your favourite course and why?

My favourite course thus far has probably been statistical mechanics (PHY452). I've really appreciated how we’ve been able to build up to foundational laws of thermodynamics and results we took for granted in PHY252 from very minimal assumptions. The formalization and content in Professor Sipe’s lectures made Quantum Mechanics I (PHY356) a close second.

What are your future plans?

I intend to pursue graduate studies to get my PhD in theoretical physics. I’m currently looking into graduate schools in Europe as I think diversifying my background would be a really valuable opportunity that would allow me to grow as both a person and researcher. Outside of academics, I hope to travel the world and spend more time with my loved ones.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully with a doctorate, working in a job that allows me to conduct research and continue learning more about the world every day! If nothing else, this past year has taught me that time is never guaranteed; I hope that in 10 years I’ll be able to look back knowing that I made the most of every day I had.

Tell me something interesting about yourself.

I did martial arts for over 10 years and have my first degree black belt in taekwondo!