As you may have noted:

I am a musical enthusiast, with a passion for the violin. Whether practicing alone or performing in an ensemble, I am always overjoyed at the experience of hearing, expressing, and shaping time through sound. Although it may seem strange that a physicist should have such an avid interests in music, I hope you'll see why my experiences as a young musician fed into my development as a physicist.

Past: Music & Physics

I grew up in the city of Spartanburg, in the piedmont of South Carolina and my interest in playing the violin began when my brother (who is seven year older than me) entered the fifth grade and chose to play the violin. I remember going to his concerts while he was in high school and after seeing these performances, the only thing that went through my mind was, "the sound; the sound!"

My enthusiasm was so incorrigible at the age of seven that I would wake up before the rest of my family just to get to my brother's violin so that I could try to figure out how to pluck "baa baa black sheep". When I was old enough to being playing with the Spartanburg school system orchestras, I naturally gravitated to the violin. At that age, my interests were not only in the music itself but also in trying to figure out how the instrument worked. In an age where most devices came in proprietary black boxes, the violin was the first device I encountered where I could dis-assemble, look inside, and directly encounter all of the component pieces. I was known for deliberately playing the violin wrong just so that I could hear the way that changes in the technique would change the sound or even produce weird sounds: sounds like munching (where the bow is raked across the bow hairs when placed against the back plate of the violin), screeching (playing the part of the string between the bridge and tail piece), or playing while controlling pitch with the pegs. Most of all, I loved going to the violin shops where the makers would show me finer points about the design and construction of the violin, like the shape of the bass bar or the positioning of the sound post.

When I reached high school, I focused my efforts more on studying the physical sciences, although I continued to perform with the Spartanburg High School symphony. The physical sciences promised an understanding of more of the black boxes that filled my daily life, a frustration that had not abated with age.

While taking the advanced placement physics and calculus courses, one of my teachers recommended that I participate in the summer science research program. This program was designed to further student's interest in pursuing the sciences by encouraging them to perform a literature search in a discipline of interest, form a relevant question, and perform an experiment or simulation that would illuminate some aspect of that question. During the two years that I participated, I gravitated to magnetism by first studying the Curie temperature of several rare-earth magnets and then by measuring the force law between the two magnets. I was amazed by two things: first that I had assembled an apparatus from scratch that did exactly what I wanted but also that from the apparatus, I got something radically different. I had found a new joy, not of simply knowing in abstraction the way things work, but of knowing through my direct experience which produced new knowledge. The summer science research program was effectively designed so that the small community of professors and fellow students participated in my joy. This was my first exposure to research, and it was done in a diverse and highly collaborative environment.

For my undergraduate studies, I chose Wofford College, a small liberal arts school, because it offered the possibility of continuing to grow both in my technical studies but also in breadth by being continuously exposed to the humanities. Even the physics, math, and computer science professors I regularly encountered loved to discuss philosophy and the arts.

My time at Wofford was more than just an opportunity to study; I exposed myself to a wide array of disciplines with the hope of understanding my place as researcher in the broader society. Each of these experiences helped me learn about my own abilities. During a summer internship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory studying Martian geology, I discovered my ability to learn new information (geology) that was radically different from my background (physics). During a summer research experience for undergraduates at the College of William and Mary studying the electronic properties of perovskite cyrstals and YBCO, I appreciated not only the novelty of material science but also the human side of the endeavor as I banded together with four other students to form a cooking group, and we would nightly discuss the progress, hopes and struggles of our work. My two research experiences at Wofford College where I worked on the Protein crystalography of FTHFS as well as relativistic corrections to klystrons further broadened my exposure to research in chemistry and theoretical research in relativity. As a whole, these research experiences showed me that I enjoy encountering new information, asking fundamental questions, and studying data to obtain new knowledge. This passion has followed me ever since and has served me well in my graduate studies.

Present: Graduate Work in Physics

I am now closing the chapter on my graduate studies, which have further molded my skills and ambitions. Upon entering graduate school five years ago, I knew that I needed to be in a place where the human side of research was valued, where I would be treated with dignity even though I was a lowly grad student. Of the universities I considered and visited, North Carolina State University was the only place where I saw the graduate students smile as they spoke with their professors. It also helped that Raleigh was (and still is) one of the best cities in America to live in. Although I did not have a clear vision of what I wanted to study, I had the confidence that my skills in learning and implementing new information would allow me to pursue any field.

During my first year, I meet with Dr. Karen Daniels and was astounded by the breadth of both her interests and the field of non-linear dynamics. Ranging from the statics and dynamics of flowing and jammed granular materials to flow stabilized colloidal solids to continuum and fluid mechanics, working with Karen offered the possibility of maintaining my broad research interests. I readily accepted a research assistant position in her lab studying surfactant monolayers which has shown me that two dimensional materials are much stranger than our familiar three-dimensions analogues.

Although the research has honed my technical skills, the most gratifying experiences in my studies have been the human encounters. Whether presenting my research to fellow scientists, teaching a class of undergraduates introductory physics, or playing music with my brother and brother-in-laws, the human element is the most astounding, full of hope and awe, creativity and affection.

Future: Aspirations

With each step I've taken during my education, I have grown not only in academic work, but also in the unique set of abilities and skills that I possess. My goals for the future are twofold: to continue learning in new research fields by asking poignant questions and conducting novel research, but also to participate more in the human experience. These goals can be accomplished in a plethora of ways, both in industry and academia, whether serving as a professor, teaching and mentoring students, or working collaboratively in a research and development group.