What do you do with physics? Anything you want! Though sometimes it is not a straight line. Something that is important for the student and advisers to know. SUPER PROUD MENTOR TODAY!

Its time to take a moment and celebrate some good news. I am very happy to report the exciting career plans of woman who have spent time in my research group. It gives you some insight into way you would study physics. It’s about being a problem solver, it’s about over coming challenges, and being fearless*. It is important to note that all of these people learned aspects of this during their time at Adelphi. It doesn’t happen over night.

Kelly Hiersche ’17 – Kelly will be starting her Ph.D. at Ohio State in the Cognitive Neuroscience PhD program. After graduating Adelphi Kelly was accepted to the prestigious Teach for America program and she taught High School Math in Middlesboro, KY (in Appalachia). She did a two year research project at Ohio State before deciding to go to graduate school there.

Kelly started in my lab. I vividly remember her talking to me at length about her psychology class while she was building a circuit. Though more than anything else I wanted to keep her in my lab (She brilliant), I realized that I had to introduce her to the Neuroscience faculty at Adelphi. One meeting with Professor Fareri in Derner and off she went to do research in their group and the rest was history.

Shameless plug for my Matlab course I will offer next spring,” Kelly recently said “I couldn’t have done it … especially that Matlab course (it was torture but it really set me up for life).”

Areeba Khalid ’20 – Areeba will be heading to Tufts to start a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering this fall. Areeba majored in Math (The horror!!!). It was definitely fun to have a “math” major working in the lab. HAHAHA! But since she did research in my lab for nearly two years she still is on Team Physics. She did some great work in my lab before doing a cool undergraduate applied math thesis with Professor Yoon on cancer research and differential equations.

During Areeba’s time she worked on designing parts and optical layouts. It was really fun to see Areeba to grow. I am so proud of her. Areeba is someone that BLAZED her own trail, took chances, and made great things happen. I loved how much she was willing to go after her dreams, despite having to take her own path.

Olivia Chierchio ’21 – Olivia is in the process of accepting her acceptance to the William and Mary Ph.D. in Physics program. Olivia has been in my lab as a first year student. I was reading my letter of recommendation for Olivia earlier today and it made me smile and shed a tear or two. In almost the exact opposite way that Kelly learned that she didn’t want to do physics research by working in the lab, Olivia’s love of experimental physics amplified the longer she worked in the lab. Olivia is the kind of hard working person that comes to work with a recently broken limb like she owns the joint. Olivia’s word is tenacity.

This morning we were chatting on Zoom and I was a proud mentor! I must have clapped for her 20 times.

Carissa Giuliano ’21 – Carissa will be attending Adelphi University next year in the education department as a graduate student. She plans to finish her masters in education on her way to becoming a high school teacher in physics. Seriously local high schools listen to me, You Want To Hire Carissa! She is absolutely amazing. She is an award winning machine.

Carissa developed her own outreach program on the science behind smell. It was an impressive project that won an Outstanding Poster award at the AAPT winter meeting in 2020. Once when Carissa was down, I told her to search this website for “Carissa”. There were so many awesome things!

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