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The Interview:

Karen: Tell me about your research, and how you got started in the Allison group.

Rudy: We're interested in the question of what happened to molecules immediately after they absorb light on the femtosecond time scale—that's one quadrillionth of a second. Our project is to develop and use a new instrument—our cavity-enhanced transient absorption spectrometer (CE-TAS)—to study ultrafast excited state molecular dynamics. In particular, I've recently been working on a molecule called 2-thiouracil, which is important for biological reasons. It's similar to the molecule uracil, which is one of the 4 nucleobases of RNA. Uracil is able to relax extremely quickly after absorbing UV radiation, which is important for protecting RNA when we go out into sunlight. The mechanism through which uracil relaxes is not completely understood, and because of the similarity between thiouracil and uracil, we hope that understanding the relaxation pathway of thiouracil will give insight into uracil.

I’ve been working on CE-TAS since I joined the Allison group. I originally got my start because I took Professor Allison's class on waves and optics. After the class ended, I emailed Professor Allison asking for a recommendation for a summer program. When I told him I was interested in in AMO physics, he invited me to tour his lab and gave me some readings that got me excited about the project they were working on, and that’s how I got started working with the group.

Are there any other undergrads in your group?

I'm the only undergrad currently. That was pretty daunting at first, knowing that everyone else knew way more than I did. But it also gave me the opportunity to ask a lot of questions, and older students in the group have been my greatest resource. One of the main things that this lab does is build new instrumentation, so our instruments require very specialized knowledge to operate. But spending time, especially over the summer, working on an upgrade to the instrument to increase the power that we excite molecules at… that whole process helped me learn more about the instrument and how to operate it.

You recently attended a meeting and presented a poster, off-campus. Was that your first presentation outside Stony Brook?

Yes, the meeting was organized by APS: through the Division of Atomic Molecular Optical (AMO) Physics. It was both exciting and intimidating since it was my first time presenting to a professional audience. I had previously presented at the URECA Celebration, and I think that experience provided me with some helpful practice, even though it was a different sort of talk and more geared to the general public. Having the narrative that I developed for the URECA symposium helped though. At the DAMOP meeting, I got to learn about other parts of the subfield that I had never heard about before. I enjoyed having questions from people who thought about the project from a different lens, which made me reflect on some of our approaches in a different way. It was a really good experience.

How has being involved in research overall enhanced your education?

I think research  has made me a better problem-solver and has made me more independent. Class work is difficult and requires problem-solving skills. But you fall into the same routine of thinking when you when you approach a homework assignment. In research, there's more of a variety in the types of problems you have. I have to develop new ways of approaching problems, I can’t just rely on office hours or talking to classmates. The result is that I have to be more independent. And that helps develop some skills that I don't get just from class work.

In terms of helping me get closer to my goals, coming into college I knew I wanted to do something research related. I was really attracted to the idea of developing new knowledge. I think that research has given me experience so that when I start grad school, I won't have to start from the ground floor, and the skills I've learned here will be transferable to other research groups that I that I might work in in the future.

It's great that you were able to connect with your current mentor/research group, as a result of having taken that particular class.

Yes, that was serendipitous. Dr. Allison is helpful as a mentor because he’s very passionate and excited about the research we do. That definitely rubs off and keeps me motivated. He's a good resource to talk to and to answer some questions when I'm  stumped on a problem. Whenever I talk with him, I'm reminded of everything that I don't know. I've also been able to talk to him about grad schools and the subfield of physics that I want to go into, and he has been helpful in directing me towards other colleagues in that field who might provide some useful perspectives.

Tell me about your involvement with the SPS/ the Society of Physics Students.

A good portion of the SPS students are involved with research. We try to sell research as a valuable resource for undergraduates—whether they're going into industry or staying in academia, the skills they learn from undergraduate research are going to be useful in their future careers. One event we had was a tour of some of the AMO physics labs. We also worked with the Physics Department to host the inaugural physics and astronomy Undergraduate Research Day, for students to present research they’ve done to their peers and faculty, and learn about some of the different research directions in the department.

What advice would you give to other students about research?

For getting involved, the best piece of advice that I can give is to just give it a shot. You don't have anything to lose by reaching out to a professor whose research you’re interested in. If you're not sure what you're interested in, just talk to them, set up a meeting to learn what it is they do and see if that's something you're interested in. I highly encourage students to get involved in research, because I think it's one of the one of the best resources that Stony Brook has to offer.

Once you join a research group, my advice is to ask questions. It can be intimidating at first when there are all these older members of the group who know so much more than you. But that's to be expected because they've had years more experience. So try not to focus on your lack of experience. Just keep asking questions. That's the only way you'll get to the level that other people are on.

Why has a summer research experience been valuable for you?

It's definitely valuable doing a summer of research. Research is time and energy intensive because you're learning a whole new field that you may have only somewhat covered in your classes. You don't get to learn it in the depths that you need for research. So having your time be free in the summer—instead of trying to learn what you need for research on top of your classes—gives you the ability to better absorb the content you need.

Also, during the summer your mentors and other students in the group also have more time, so you can get better tutoring from them on aspects of the research project. Having this time to focus just on research without being distracted by classes or other things helps you get more involved and better understand what you're doing.

You are pursuing a double major in math, along with physics. That sounds like a great combination.

Yes, I kind of was surprised to end up doing this because I was never especially a math kid. But I took one proof-based math course my freshman year, and I really liked it. Proofs are sort of like doing puzzles. They make you approach problems in a different way. These classes teach you good mental techniques for approaching problems. They force you to think hard about your own logic and your own reasoning: how you get from point A to point B. I think taking those math classes and doing proofs has helped me in problem solving generally and reasoning more rigorously.

Was research an important factor that drew you to Stony Brook?

Since high school I knew I wanted to do research. I love the idea of everyone making their own tiny contribution to the whole corpus of human knowledge and, bit by bit, building towards better technologies and a better understanding of the world.  I wasn't even certain what I wanted to major in when I first came here, but I was sure I wanted to do research. I chose physics because it seemed like the most fundamental field I really enjoyed the first couple of physics classes here, so I stuck with it, and it's turned out well!