Modern experimental physics presents many challenges and requires its practitioners to be adaptive. As experiments become more elaborate, collaborations become larger, and the physics we are probing becomes more fundamental, making substantial progress often means that innovation is necessary. Physicists are pushed to come up with increasingly clever methods to explore the underlying structure of our Universe and are constantly confronted with technical problems that need to be solved. Like most people who choose a career in physics, I was drawn in by the allure of deeper understanding, but I have continued my pursuit out of a love for solving the difficult problems that doing physics presents.
My interest in physics can be traced all the way back to middle school. After noticing my aptitude for mathematics and my interest in physics, my geometry teacher suggested that I borrow several popular physics books from her collection and read them. While I did not always understand the ideas presented in these books, I still found myself enthralled by them. I immediately began trying to learn as much about physics as I could and by the time I got to high school I was firmly convinced I wanted to be a physicist. I enrolled in physics as soon as I could and was
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Having tutored many underclassmen in both physics and mathematics, I have found that it is equally satisfying to help someone else solve a problem as it is to solve the problem yourself. I have had many influential teachers in my life and it is important to me to have the ability to teach others about physics so I can continue the legacy that they will leave behind. Graduate school will be the first step in what will hopefully be a long career of teaching and mentoring students as a member of academia where I hope I can make as much of a difference for others as my teachers have for