Brianna Williams, a senior here at West High, was given the opportunity to do physics research during the UNI summer research course. “I’ve always love the subject science, but for some reason physics seemed the most intimidating out of all the science courses. Last year as a junior I decided I wanted to take the course because it seemed like a challenge I needed. After taking the class I realized it wasn’t as hard as I initially thought it was going to be and was actually quite fun carrying out experiments and using math to predict outcomes in real life,” says Williams.

While discussing what the research was like and how she got put into the physics part, Williams said “during the UNI summer research you can choose which projects you would like to be involved with. Typically professors guide the research.” She would then go on to say “the project was about heusler compounds and looking at their physical properties. We used a PPMS machine and ran various samples writing sequences for different magnetic fields and temperatures. Then we graphed the data on Origin and wrote lines of best fit for our findings. This process was repetitive and took a lot of time.”

Williams has enjoyed science for a while now stating, “I’ve always enjoyed science classes and actually as a senior there are no science courses for me to take at West because I have taken them all. I plan to go to college for either a biology or biochem degree.” Going off of her mention of wanting to get her biology or biochem degree, Williams says she hopes to become a neurologist when she is older.

In comparison to the other departments, “The physics department is quite small and is the smallest science department for UNI research. I became really close to all the UNI physic majors that participated in the summer research very quickly. They were all super inviting and such fun individuals. After we finished our UNI research they showed me the physics student break room and it was such a cool space. I also was able to attend the chemistry cookouts every Wednesday where I met other science majors,” explained Williams. In Williams’ opinion, “I think this opportunity was eye opening for me, especially in the future. I plan to carry out my own UNI research this summer.”