In my first year at Texas Tech I was put on the frontier of scientific knowledge in order to contribute to humanity’s understanding of the universe. Since the ancient egyptians, research in science and mathematics has allowed humans to go from cave dwelling hunters to the first living organism to arrive on the moon’s surface. Due to my performance in my physics class, my professor has given me the opportunity to take the first step in my journey of becoming a theoretical physicist. That being starting research in solid-state physics. Research is incredibly important to every single person on this planet whether they are aware of it or not. Without research we would still live in a hunter and gatherer society. Thousands of year ago humans began …show more content…
We are studying phonon on phonon interactions and how heat flows through structures. Due to the difficulty of running experiments at the quantum level, theorists utilize computers to run simulations. These simulations help us to understand truly what is causing the flow of heat. Currently we are able to change the viscosity, the conductivity and the magnetism of materials quite accurately because we understand how those processes work. Our current solution to cooling down objects is usually by blowing on it via a fan. This is a surface level understanding of heat and if we were able to control the flow of heat through objects it would make building supercomputers, vehicles and many other types of machinery possible. This is why this research is incredibly interesting and important. It is a major obstacle that pervades through all types of …show more content…
The academic community in general has a plethora of rules regarding plagiarism, credit and what is truly scientific. These rules are being integrated into my thought process to ensure what I do is scientific and that credit is given where credit is due. Through doing undergraduate research, I am able to get a head start on most other young physicists who start doing research when they enter graduate school. Once I begin graduate school I will already have helped published a few papers and be familiar with the entire research process. This makes me a valuable target to many universities. This also helps so that by the time I finish my Ph.D I will be ahead of my peers in the number of papers published allowing me to enter a prestigious university as a postdoctoral student. These skills will continually be used throughout the rest of both my personal and professional life and, to me, could not be