Researcher of the Month
December 2005
Melissa Friedman
Physics major, Class of '06, Marshall Scholar
Research Mentor: Dr. Harold Metcalf, Physics & Astronomy
Melissa spoke with URECA, days after returning from Tuscon, Arizona where she presented
at an Undergraduate Research Symposium at Frontiers in Optics 2005, a joint annual
meeting of the Division of Laser Science (DLS) of the American Physical Society (APS)
and the Optical Society of America (OSA). Melissa discussed frequency-comb technology
for optical atomic clocks, a topic she explored this past summer while working at
the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) in the laboratory of Theodor (Ted)
Hänsch, this year's recipient of the Frederic Ives medal, and one of this year's Nobel
laureates. What was particularly exciting was that all three 2005 Nobel laureates
in physics — Roy Glauber, John Hall, and her former mentor Theodor Hänsch— were being
recognized at the conference. And Melissa, along with a few other undergrads, had
treasured opportunities to interact with these and other leading experts in optics/laser
sciences.
Melissa's summer research experience in Germany was not the first time she'd worked
with a Nobel prize winning physicist! During summer 2004 when she participated in
an REU program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Melissa worked with 2001 Nobel
laureate Eric Cornell at the JILA Institute's BEC Group and will be listed as a co-author
on an upcoming Cornell publication (paper submitted). And the research she did with Prof. Hänsch's group in 2005 through an international
REU program led not only to her recent symposium presentation in Tuscon and to hobnobbing with
Nobel laureates, but had other benefits as well. Melissa enjoyed bike riding, travel
and a chance to hone her German-speaking skills— all the while getting some neat results
on a difficult experimental physics project.
Melissa chalks up her noteworthy accomplishments, in part, to good luck. Yet the serendipitous
path Melissa now follows as she pursues a bright future in optics is all the more
impressive when we learn that Melissa was not the superstar science student in high
school that she is in college. Melissa initially began her undergraduate career studying
industrial design, but changed her direction after being frustrated by a year of poor
grades and poor health. She then got a degree from Nassau Community College in Liberal
Arts, before coming to Stony Brook University as a transfer student in 2003. So how
did Melissa get from point A to point B? The x-factor, in this case, was Prof. Hal
Metcalf of our Department of Physics & Astronomy. Professor Metcalf was the first
to open the doors of undergraduate research to her, and has been providing steady
encouragement and support ever since. Growing up in Great Neck, Long Island, Melissa
was also lucky in having been turned onto physics while still in elementary school.
She now has the happy prospect of doing what she loves to do — and being very good
at it!
A capstone to this wonderful narrative is the news that Melissa was awarded a Marshall
Scholarship (Nov. 2005) which will fund two years of post-baccalaureate study in the
United Kingdom. She is the first Stony Brook student to be honored with this very
prestigious award and plans to pursue a doctorate in the Department of Atomic and
Laser Physics at the University of Oxford (see also University Press Release 11/17/05;and Newsday article 12/10/05). Below are some excerpts of her interview with Karen Kernan, URECA
Director .
Karen: Have you always had such a strong interest in physics? Did you participate in some
of the well-known Long Island high school science research programs? Were you active
in high school science fairs and competitions?
Melissa:I have a complicated story. . . I was told in middle school and HS that I wasn't an
honors level science student. I had about a B/B+ average in science classes. The honors
kids, they all had 98/99 averages. I couldn't compete with that. I'm not very good
at regurgitating facts. Also I had medical problems, and I couldn't keep up with the
work . . . I learn everything in my own way. I had teachers who wanted us to memorize
and repeat, and I wouldn't do that. I absolutely refused. I am a different kind of
student than they're used to, than they thought of as successful. They weren't really
willing to give me the time and the patience to develop. Plus, I was a kid. I was
not so focused as I am now.
How did you even come to pursue physics then?
Actually physics was one of my first interests when I was in elementary school. I
took a physics class at the high school, it was a special program. . . . And I was
really into it. I really wanted to do it. We did these various experiments. We set
up a simple electrical circuit, we learned how a battery is charged using a metaphor
of a girl running back and forth carrying charges. . . I took home one project for
the elementary school science fair. The teacher knew how excited I was.
What made you decide to transfer to Stony Brook, after things didn't work out with
your first year of college, and after you had switched to Nassau Community College?
Art didn't work out. [So I figured] why not go back to what I wanted to do orginally?
What would stop me this time?....I decided I wanted to continue in physics. Stony
Brook seemed like the best option. It was the best state school for science. I'd heard
about undergraduate research opportunities from people at Nassau. Someone there told
me I should get involved in REU programs. They had a good department here at SBU.
How did you find a research placement?
My first professor that I had for physics was Harold Metcalf. I was just blown away
by how good a professor he was and I was so interested in the class. I felt like…a
little kid again, loving physics! He saw my interest. I heard he was giving a talk
at an open physics night about the coldest temperature in the universe. "Wow, that's
so cool!", I thought. So I brought my dad. . . .I asked Hal afterwards: "Can I see
your lab?" He told me to talk to the graduate students. And they invited me to lunch,
told me about the project. I started hanging out in the lab, just watching them do
whatever they were doing. Basically I was hanging around the lab for the first semester.
During the winter break, I was going to be staying around. I asked if I could have
a project. [Prof. Metcalf] said: "Do you want to get paid?" I said, "okay!" That was
my first project. The littrow prism beam expander. So I made a beam expander for a
laser beam so it could make an elliptical beam out of a circular beam.
This turned out, I believe, to be the project you presented at our on-campus URECA
Celebration in April 2003. How independent was this first project? How much guidance
did you get?
I look[ed] at textbooks and tried deriving my own formulas based on what I need[ed]
to do. I wrote an Excel program to figure out what prism arrangements would get certain
beam expansions. And basically discovered the trick to it. I also got guidance from
Prof. Metcalf and from the graduate students and postdocs. I learned a lot on my own
about optics and stuff. It's not the biggest project, but it was good for getting
started. . .
After your initial experience with the Metcalf group, what made you get interested
in applying to a summer research program?
I started looking for summer opportunities. They were interviewing people for the
Physics Department to hire a new faculty member. They invited students to listen to
the talks and to have lunch with the candidates. We had a few candidates from Univ.
of Colorado, Boulder. And I heard such great stories about it. JILA is the big name
for optical physics in the US. So I decided that I really wanted to go there. …. They
had an REU program. I found the REU program online.
I know you got into Boulder — the only REU program you applied to! But how in the
world did you end up finding the great mentor that you did?
Actually, that's a little complicated [too]. . .They put me with a graduate student
who really didn't care so much to help me and just left me in the office for hours,
telling me to play with the computer program that I couldn't figure out. So I figured
maybe I should try to switch, look elsewhere. . . So I went to the REU program director.
. . She showed me the other groups, the other labs in the BEC group. At one lab I
went into they were working with rotating Bose Einstein Condensation (BEC), creating
vortex lattices and superfluid. The postdoc was a really nice guy. He really explained
things. And I was really interested in it. And I asked, "Could I have a project here?"
He said: "You have to talk to the boss. Eric Cornell." I went to Eric Cornell's office.
. . He got back to me that Monday. He had a really interesting project for me.
What can you tell me about the project you did with Prof. Cornell's group?
What they wanted to do next was to apply an optical field to the spinning BEC. . .
So what I had to create was an optical potential or interference pattern of laser
light to rotate with the BEC. So the question was: How do we make this interference
pattern? How do we control it to do what we want with it. Those were questions I investigated
while working with the group. . . . So basically I was able to finish the project.
I figured out to make this interference pattern, how to predict it using Mathematica…
Was it difficult to learn? You only had eight weeks to complete the project, right?
I got help. Basically everything I did is with help. Because I didn't really know
that much. I still don't know that much.
Is it true you might even have a publication resulting from this work?
I just got really lucky with that one.
I know you had a poster at the URECA Celebration, on-campus, in 2003. What was your
first off-campus presentation of research?
The Frontiers in Optics …in Rochester, last year. It's a relatively new thing. The
undergraduate research symposium. There were maybe 10 undergrads presenting. . .I
gave a talk. I wasn't nervous about it because I had already given the talk for the
REU students back in Boulder, Colorado for my group and for Eric Cornell. In fall
2004, at the symposium in Rochester ...that's where I met Prof. Martin Richardson
from the University of Central Florida. He organizes an international REU program
that goes to France and Germany. I knew that there existed a program. Well, I thought...how
could I do better than Colorado? Go abroad? . . . And [Prof. Richardson] said he'd
love to have me apply!
Successful networking, I'd say! But once you got into the international REU Physics
program, how did you manage to get your specific research placement?
I really wanted to go to the Max Planck Institute for Quantum optics because I've
heard it was one of the best places in the world for optics. [It's located] near Munich.
[Prof. Richardson] said: " I don't know if we can find out a place in Munich. The
people who I know, they're not taking undergraduates".. . . So I asked Prof. Metcalf.
He had had a German exchange student a number of years ago who works now for Prof.
Theodor Hänsch. So he knew this guy. . . And there happened to be someone in the group
who had a project for an undergraduate. His name was Ronald Holzwarth. It was in his
group. So I was really lucky to get that position.
Were you the only undergraduate in your research group, at the MPQ Institute?
Pretty much! Well. . . I can't speak for the whole Institute. I was certainly the
only American undergraduate there in my group. It was a little intimidating. But I
guess I 'm kind of used to that — being the only one who doesn't know anything. And
I mean just accepting that that's how you learn. Just accepting your position makes
people want to help you, teach you things. I really learned a lot.
What kind of research did you do in Germany?
The research involved testing a radiofrequency measurement system for precision frequency
measurement. Basically the idea is that we can measure frequencies very very precisely
with a technique that was developed by Prof. Hänsch. But the levels of accuracy we're
looking for—10 to the minus 18—a thousand times better than current cesium clock,
which is 10 to the minus 15. . . . We need to work it out experimentally, how we're
going to get those levels of accuracy. . . No one had every tried seeing if they could
measure a laser pulse repetition rate with that kind of accuracy. What you have to
do is compare two systems. Because you can never know how accurate something is based
on itself. I tried a series of experiments: first using a signal generator to see
how low we can get the measurement system, which was not as good as we wanted to.
It was a very difficult project. It's not a completeable project..it's just cracking
open the door to this type of very experimental work. . . I got to work with a lot
of radiofrequency devices. My experience in junior lab the previous semester really
helped with that. I felt I was pretty well prepared for working with that stuff from
electronics lab [from SBU]. . . The first month I was in Germany. I was wondering
if my project [was] really something important. It seemed kind of boring. It's something
that's not interesting for a postdoc to do. But for an undergraduate it is really
interesting. Because everything is new to you.
The project that you worked on last summer, is this what you presented at the Frontiers
in Optics meeting just recently at Tuscon?
Yes. After the conference I went to say hello to Prof. Hänsch and he did remember
who I was. He told me he wanted to go to the undergrad research symposium and to show
him where it was. . . . He said he just needed a couple minutes because the newspaper
wanted to interview him. Glauber and Hall were there also. Hall started talking to
me, and Prof Hänsch took a picture of us. Hall is from Boulder. Hänsch told Hall that
I worked with Eric the previous year. And he was pretty impressed..that I'd worked
with two Nobel prize winners. . . . I was in the room with the reporters [when they
interviewed the 2005 Nobel laureates in physics]. The important OSA people were there..
. . .Newspaper reporters and me. It was the coolest thing that's ever happened to
me. . . . Hall is a really cool guy. I never met him before. Hänsch was super nice
. Even before he won the Nobel prize, I knew he was one of the greatest minds in physics
of our time. …I had a nice conversation with Prof. Hänsch. I had spoken to him twice
before...so that was pretty cool.
Will you now be continuing on in the field of optics? Going to graduate school?
I'm totally hooked. I can't do anything else now. Having those experiences as an undergraduate.
. . most people don't get that even as graduate students. If I have so much luck in
this way — and I really love doing the stuff — why should I go anywhere else? [At
the meeting in Tuscon]…it was just really amazing. They're looking at me like I'm
the future of optics.
Aside from your success as an undergraduate, and the positive feedback you've been
getting. . . what makes you love this field of research? What is so enjoyable to you
about the particular research that you do?
I love the challenge. It's always solving puzzles. Especially last summer. Everything
always goes wrong in experimental physics. Your job is to find out what went wrong
and how to fix it. Even if you never know what went wrong if it's fixed you leave
it alone.
Do you get flustered by actual research experiences?
You get frustrated. . . But after you find the solution to it and you fix it, it's
like WOW I want to do that again! It doesn't feel good when something really important
just broke. After you find the solution of why it broke and you fixed it, it's a really
great feeling!
In all these research experiences you've had, and in all your observations and interactions
with scientists. . . what do you think makes for success?
You have to be really creative. Basically you want to get from point A to point B.
. . Nobody's done it before. So you have to figure it out yourself. You have to machine
your own parts. You have to build your own devices, decide what you want to do, how
you're going to do it. There are always a number of ways to do everything. You just
want to make it the simplest way possible to minimize the amount of things that can
go wrong.
How much of the work you've done so far in physics research involves working with
other people? Are you isolated, working on your own much of the time?
It's all collaborative. Whenever you write a paper you never say "I"; you always say
"we"…even if it's just you, it's always "we." Because you're always either referencing
someone's paper , or because there's a very good chance that someone else did something
along the same lines of something you want to do as part of your project. Plus every
step of the way, I was always asking a postdoc or graduate student or my advisor:
what do I next? You're just amazed how much experience these people have, how much
they seem to know about everything. Then you realize, after you've done something,
you've struggled with it, you've figured it out . . . [that] you're going to remember
that the next time you see it. So they've seen everything. They know what's going
on. After a summer of doing that, I started also getting an intuitive feeling of what's
going on and what's possibly gone wrong.
How would you say research has enhanced your education?
For me, I have a tough time learning in classes. It doesn't always seem relevant what
you're doing. I think you're much more likely to retain if you know why you learning
something. When you go into a research environment and you feel like you really don't
know anything, it's a real encouragement to be able to learn. Plus while you're doing
something, you're also learning about it, and the principles behind it. I learned
a whole lot this summer — about physics in general, how we can analyze error. Error
analysis is something that most undergraduates students just put on fake error bars,
that's your error. In precision measurement, that's your whole project: getting rid
of error, lowering error.
. . . I know [now] much more about the fields. You can't really discern what's that
important from your classes. Especially in the field that you're going to do. But
actually being in the lab you really use the stuff that you learned. Instead of just
using a set of electronics in a classroom lab, I got to use a million dollars worth
of electronics in a real lab.
What are the advantages of doing research in the summer, vs. doing research throughout
the year? Does the intensity of summer work get to be too much?
When you're doing a summer research experience, you are a full time researcher. So
you can spend every day, 8-10 hours a day, doing just your project. . . What I like
about [the intensity] is that you choose it. When you're ready to work, you work.
And you can work as long as you want. If you have a good day you can work the whole
night. If you're having a bad day, you don't have to work. It balances out. I really
like the idea of setting your own hours, setting your own pace. . . [During the school
year, you can't stay up till 2 in the morning when you have class tomorrow and you
need to be rested plus you have homework to do. So that has to take priority. And
when your primary responsibility is research, you can spend as much as you want on
it. Most of the important stuff happens in a day or two. So basically it's not a smooth
progression of doing research. This week we really got something done. We might do
nothing the next two weeks. …
The first month [in Germany].. I was just learning. I was learning. I was trying to do something that wasn't working. What I accomplished was [actually] done in a short time. I wanted to compare two lasers with each other…What's the fastest we can do this experiment? I think in all experimental physics, it's like that. You set up the project and fix things for 99% of the time. And one day it works and that's when you get all your data. And then you take down the experiment 'cause it worked.
It sounds like you need to learn a lot of additional skills along the way —including
fixing equipment.What other skills were important for you?
Soldering is definitely an important skill. It's actually pretty fun. . . Mathematica
is pretty important. ..
Machining [parts] . . .I got to do while I was in Colorado.
You always seem to have had the initiative, the presence of mind, to seek extra help.
Is it difficult to put yourself on the line, to ask for help?
I would have gotten absolutely nowhere if I didn't ask people for help. It's pretty
comfortable for me to ask people for help. It's what I started doing when I first
came to Stony Brook. The physics classes as Nassau were not as preparatory as the
ones at Stony Brook so I fell very behind. The only way I caught up was asking every
graduate student I knew to help me with this problem, with that problem. . . People
like to help you. That's one thing I discovered. Now that I'm helping other people
I find I also like to help people. There's a student I'm kind of mentoring. And she
comes to me with her questions in Modern Physics. I can't always help her. If I can,
it feels really good. She comes with questions. Three times a week. That's been a
really rewarding experience.
Do you want to be a physics professor? Are you interested in doing both teaching as
well as experimental research?
I would like to be teaching. I do enjoy teaching. Having been to this conference,
you see it's not about the people who are already established in the field, it's about
the students, and building on yourself with the next generation. It's really probably
the most important, or at least 50%,of your responsibilities as a physicist. You can
mainly do that as a professor, so that's my current goal.
Going to this conference, meeting and working with the Nobel laureates . . . what
has this done for your general outlook?
Just feeling [that] this is the world that's waiting for me. It was really one of
the most exciting moments of my life. They were talking to me. I could barely listen.
I couldn't hear what Prof. Hall was saying I was just thinking this is the coolest
thing that's ever happened to me. . . Just seeing what kind of people there are, it
just makes me want to learn this stuff. To be eventually, maybe one day on their level.
What's your advice for students interested in your field, or even more generally,
for students interested in going into research in general?
Don't be shy. Don't be afraid to march right into someone's office. They're usually
pretty friendly and if they're not.. it's not your fault. Because I had the guts to
walk into the office of a professor who I felt intimidated by. . .and ask him, "do
you have research?" Or "can you answer my questions?" You find there's a whole world
there waiting for you if you just ask for it.
Related Link(s):
The Laser Teaching Center and Optics at Stony Brook:"A Singular Optics Reuinion in Tuscon"
External Fellowships (UAA office )