Prize Recipient

Jeremy Morales

Background:

This coming school year will be my second at the University of Washington in Seattle. I am a junior working my way towards an undergraduate degree in physics. I have already decided that I will go to graduate school, although I am not sure where I want to go yet. I had a chance to briefly visit UCSB this summer, and the campus alone almost won me over. I would like to stay on the west coast, but regardless, I will aim for the top schools.

This summer, through the NASA Space Grant program, I have been involved in a REU at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Coming from Washington, I was not quite ready for the southland summer heat, but it has been a great experience. I am working in low-temperature physics, specifically with the He3-He4 tricritical point. The project is called EXACT (EXperiments Along Coexistence near Tricriticality). It seeks to test Renormalization Group theory with the most scrutiny ever attempted by means of a high resolution thermometer. I work in Dr. Melora Larson's lab in conjunction with Peter Koo, a summer student from Berkeley.

My experience this summer has been one of many excellent opportunities, so I want to thank everyone how has supported me over the years and has allowed me to realize these great successes. First, I thank God, who has provided for me like no one else can. Next, I thank my father and mother for their love and desire to see me succeed in filling out my potential. Also, I thank all the teachers who have supported my learning and whose legacy has left a lasting imprint on my life. I thank Dr. David Buchthal and Dr. Chris Byrne for the solid educational foundation they have laid for my future and for their lessons that cannot be found in textbooks. In this respect, I also thank Dr. Eric Agol, Dr. Oscar Vilches, Dr. Melora Larson, Dr. Joseph Rothberg, Lefteris Kirkinis, and the countless other men and women of science that have been such an important part of my educational development. In their own way, each person has created opportunities for me that have greatly impacted my life for the better. Finally, I thank the American Physical Society and the Committee on Minorities in Physics for their support of physics and my love for it.