by Audrey Kvam, CWLT physics tutor

Audrey and her poster!

I spent this past summer doing a theoretical research project (“Analyzing the
Propagation of Light through Composite Dark Matter”) with one of my professors in the
physics department, David Latimer. (It was fantastic, I highly recommend doing summer research here at UPS!) By mid-August, I was wrapping up my research, making my
poster, writing up my results, and David sent me a link to something called the Conference Experience for Undergraduates (CEU). This conference is held in conjunction with the American Physical Societyʼs fall meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics, and is an opportunity for undergraduate researchers to get experience
presenting their research to the physics community, learn about the research currently
happening in the field of nuclear physics, and network to get connections for future
research/grad school. On somewhat of a whim, I sent in an application and received
funding both from the conference itself and UPS to attend with my research poster.

School took over and I barely had time to think about the conference until last
week, when I suddenly realized I was about to fly across the country (the conference
was held in Virginia this year), alone, to talk about my research with people who would
not only understand everything I did over the summer, but could also ask all kinds of
complicated questions that would go way over my head. I spent the next few days trying
valiantly not to panic.

It turns out all my angst was for nothing; small talk is not my forte, but luckily
physicists are not known for their social prowess and no one was thrown off by a little
awkwardness. By the second day, Iʼd made friends with a few other undergrads and
together we explored the area and went to endless talks given by current researchers at
universities and labs across the world. At the poster session, I fielded questions from
various graduate students and fully-qualified physicists and rather impressed myself
with how much I did know (although I had to admit to ignorance several times). There
was an ice cream social and a graduate school fair, where I talked to representatives
from schools such as Rutger, Duke, and MIT about what their programs are like, which
fields Iʼm most interested in, and what they look for in a strong application to grad
school.

A group photo of all of the undergraduate researchers at the conference

Overall, the conference was incredibly inspiring. Hearing talks about current research made me realize how much I have yet to learn (I need to take a quantum
mechanics class STAT) and how much I really want to learn it. It was also apparent how
much the physics community really cares about the next generation of physicists-to-be by the ready willingness to give advice and recommend research and/or grad school opportunities. In just a few days, I made friends that I can see myself staying in touch with for years to come. For anyone who has the opportunity to attend a conference — for any field, not just physics — do it!!