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HMC Physics Community Attends APS

When designing his solid state physics course for the 2018 spring semester, Professor Nicholas Breznay 鈥�02 had an ultimate goal in mind: Get as many students as he could to attend the American Physical Society March Meeting, held this year in Los Angeles.

鈥淭he idea was to give students ownership of the language and active questions in condensed matter physics, with the hope of providing them a jumping-off point for attending this conference,鈥� Breznay says. Physics professors Jason Gallicchio and Peter Saeta also attended, as did Sharon Gerbode, Iris and Howard Critchell Professor of Physics, who brought students from her lab.

To help his students get the most from the conference, Breznay gave them a to-do list of 27 challenges encouraging them to do things like attend invited talks, ask questions during Q-and-A sessions and meet new people in the physics community. 鈥淪ome small conferences are self-explanatory, but the March Meeting is the largest in the world鈥攎ore than 11,000 attendees this year鈥攁nd it can be opaque and intimidating,鈥� Breznay says. 鈥淚 wanted to open as many doors for engagement as I could for the students and to share my sense of the opportunities.鈥�

Because the conference was so close to campus, Breznay sought to make a Harvey Mudd event out of it, including alumni and current and retired faculty, who met the students for lunch.

Here are some of the day鈥檚 highlights.

Junior Colin Adams checked 15 of the 27 to-dos from his list, including attending the tradeshow (#13) and meeting and talking to someone he didn鈥檛 know before the conference (#18). Adams says he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 鈥淢y favorite part of the day was probably the alumni lunch,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 love meeting Mudd alumni and bonding over the shared experience of Mudd. They understand what we鈥檙e going through.鈥� Adams enjoyed Breznay鈥檚 class and the culminating trip to the conference so much that he says he鈥檇 recommend it to 鈥�12/10 friends if it鈥檚 offered again.鈥�

Recently retired physics professor Richard Haskell was happy to reunite with colleagues and former students. Having been to approximately 20 APS conferences throughout the years, Haskell was impressed by the number of Mudders in attendance, saying it was perhaps the largest such reunion he鈥檚 seen at a conference. 鈥淲hat an exciting experience for Mudders to immerse themselves in a huge group of highly motivated physicists who just want to understand the physical universe,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 love the intellectual excitement of hearing new research results and sharing that excitement with new folks that I meet and especially with alums who, of course, are old friends.鈥�

鈥淭he experience of being at such a large physics conference really fosters that sense of belonging, at least for me,鈥� says junior Vivian Phun. 鈥淢y favorite part of the day was definitely the lunch with the HMC community. I often take that feeling of community for granted on campus because of all of the schoolwork. It was nice to just sit down and chat with HMC physicists without feeling the stress of homework.鈥�

Saeta enjoyed perusing the latest in physics literature, but agrees with his colleagues that 鈥渨ithout question, the lunch that was so incredibly well attended was the highlight for me. It was great to run into so many alums, both at lunch and in the corridors of the conference.鈥�

鈥淲e had great turnout of students, alumni and faculty,鈥� Breznay says, noting that Mudders from each academic year鈥攆irst years through seniors鈥攁ttended the conference. 鈥淚 think we can empower our amazing students and alumni by giving them all an additional network of names, friendly faces and areas of expertise.鈥�

In addition to reuniting with alumni, attending talks and eating lunch, Mudders learned about instrumentation for sale in the tradeshow and viewed student poster presentations, including one by Adam Shaw 鈥�18. Carla Becker 鈥�18, Adams and Phun checked off the poster session-related to-dos (Nos. 20鈥�22) by attending Shaw鈥檚 presentation.

Shaw also delivered a talk at the conference, explaining his work with Breznay. 鈥淎fter seeing Adam鈥檚 very clear talk, a colleague mentioned their surprise that Adam is 鈥榦nly鈥� an undergraduate,鈥� Breznay says. 鈥淗e has owned the project at every step, and I am also proud that it was a collaborative effort. Teammate Miguel Velez 鈥�21 and our other group members asked great questions and gave very helpful feedback.鈥�

Breznay and Gallicchio used some of their time at the conference to talk with vendors. Breznay hopes to acquire a variable-temperature cryogenic refrigerator with a superconducting magnet and associated experimental probes for the College. 鈥淚t is a serious piece of hardware, and everyone at Harvey Mudd, including first-year students, could learn how to use it and carry out their own experiments,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 wait!鈥�

Gallicchio says he enjoyed his time at the conference: 鈥淭he highlight for me was learning about a new astronomical polarization measurement technique from an undergraduate student鈥檚 poster,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat, and the lunch.鈥�

Breznay made it a priority to meet with collaborators, like Professor Claudia Ojeda-Aristizabal (California State University, Long Beach). He also had conversations with more than 20 colleagues from the U.S. and around the world. 鈥淭he value of a big conference is to network, connect with colleagues and collaborators, talk to vendors, sell your ideas, and see what research questions are intriguing and active,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd we have to participate. When Harvey Mudd shows up, 无忧视频 communities don鈥檛 just become stronger, they become more inclusive and more diverse. Even in such a big conference, we are making an impact.鈥�