Monday and Tuesday of this week, about 10 students and I trekked to the University of Rochester to explore career and graduate school options in optics – something many of our undergraduate students have a fair amount of training in. IT WAS A BLAST! This blog summarizes our visit. (Pictures at the bottom of page.)
Tara Peňa
I am not going to lie, I shed a tear of joy when I heard my former student, Tara Peňa, speak about her graduate project. I am so proud of the work she is doing at U of R. She is currently in her fifth year of graduate (PHD) school (WAIT FIFTH YEAR! HOW DID TIME GO SO FAST?!) I can’t wait until she becomes Dr. Tara Peňa.
So what if half of the pictures I took from this trip were of her working in the lab? Super Proud!
The Cast and Crew at U of R and LLE:
I would like to thank all of the wonderful people in Rochester we had the privilege of meeting with. Thank you for this an exciting and safe visit. I’d like to specially thank Dean Nick Vamivakas, Dean Wendi Heinzelman, Director Tom Brown, Director M. S. Wei, Terry Kessler and every one’s name I am currently worried about spelling wrong. There was an entire cast and crew of eager scientists and engineers showing us every detail – handling questions from first year physicists to faculty.
I can’t stress how wonderful everyone was. It was the best tour I have ever been on. Conversations ranged from crazy physics and optics to how to pick the best graduate school. It was an amazing couple of days. The energy was off the charts.
U of R Institute of Optics and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, THANK YOU! I can’t even tell you how excited each student was on our drive home. Well until some one brought up next week’s Quantum Exam. HAHA!
We were even late to the LLE. The staff there stayed late to chat with us and give us the FULL lab tour well into the evening. They were AMAZING! We didn’t get out there until 7:30 pm Monday.
Lab Students Seeing Their Experiments X 1,000,000
One of the best parts of the trip was leaning over my research student’s shoulder and commenting, “Do you recognize what that is?”, pointing to a fancy optical fiber set up. And then watching their face light up when they realize it is something that they had already worked with.
At one point this summer Mara and I did something with tape and an optical fiber. She was so happy to see that there was a professional way to do it. We both had a hardy laugh. At one point, I told one of the students, “There’s the ball driver, get to work.” (Of course that was in jest.)
100% Fried
2 days! 16 hours of driving! 10 hours of Physics lab tours! Getting 10 college students on the same page with the schedule! CRAZY – I slept in today and took the day off! There are so many funny stories from the trip, I don’t know where to begin.
I did drop off two students at their houses. Both would likely have needed to take public transit home and I wasn’t going to make them do it at midnight. That did mean that I had to drive my bus (really just a university van, but it felt like a bus to me because I always drive small cars) through Queens. It was absolutely bonkers. I have NO idea what the clearance of that van was. I do know it is less than 9 ft, because I kept going under smaller and smaller bridges. Each time, I let out a louder squeak. Public safety said it was fine to on the parkways. I just didn’t believe it and we tested it.
Main Takeways
- I knew U of R was awesome, I just didn’t realize how awesome!
- I felt so comfortable there. What an awesome place! What awesome people! What awesome research!
- I really enjoyed getting to know my students better on this fun and crazy road trip.
- The partnership between U of R and Adelphi is about to take off!
- After years of COVID, EVERYONE is ready to get back to do these kinds of events. You could just feel the excitement from everyone involved.
Pictures from my phone:
Pictures from Zahin Ritee’s Phone:
My Hasty Day 1 Post
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