8/18/2019 Cypull Statement

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Statement of Interest for Olivia Cypull

A common question in any upper-level math class is “When am I ever going

to use this?” I often found myself among these students until I too! my "rst physics

class in high school# $o me physics gave math a no%le reason- trying to ma!e sense

of the underlying rules that govern our universe# &or years I thought the only

'orth'hile 'ay to furthering our understanding 'as the study of particle physics

and astronomy until I sa' a presentation on soft condensed matter# (o' is it that

humans can discover ne' su%atomic particles %ut still don)t understand a pile of

sand? *o' I %etter understand the comple+ity of these physics pro%lems %ut still

my primary interest lies in the "elds of soft condensed matter physics and comple+

systems#

I started my undergraduate career at ,. as a mathematics ma/or %ut

quic!ly reali0ed I had made a mista!e# (alf-'ay through my "rst semester I made

one of the most important decisions of my life and started the paper'or! to %ecome

a physics ma/or as 'ell as a mathematics ma/or# Within a year of starting physics

classes I sought out our department)s) soft matter physicist and %egan research

'ith him# y "rst underta!ing in the la% 'as ta!ing over a graduating senior)s

research pro/ect ”1roplet 1ynamics of a Coarsening 2mulsion System#” I /oined this

pro/ect too late to %e involved 'ith data collection %ut still 'as a%le to recreate ho'

the e+periments 'ere done to gain the e+perience# I spent the ma/ority of summer

3456 analy0ing the data for this pro/ect in I17 learning valua%le programming s!ills

and critical thin!ing s!ills# $he follo'ing summer I %egan t'o ne' pro/ects “1roplet

1ynamics in a &lo'ing 2mulsion System” and “8u%%le 1eformation at the Air-Water

Interface”# .nli!e the previous summer I started %oth of these pro/ects at the

%eginning designing a creating the e+perimental apparatuses as 'ell as laying out

the procedures# $hrough this I learned ho' trou%leshooting is an inherent and

often time-consuming part of physics research# $he 'or! on %u%%le deformation is

a 6-9A colla%orative pro/ect %et'een ,ames adison and 9irginia $ech 'ith ,.

focusing on the e+perimental aspect and 9$ modeling and researching theory# y

la% mem%ers interacted via teleconference on a regular %asis 'hich really %rought

the groups together# 7ater in the summer another student /oined our la% and %egan

'or!ing on the %u%%le deformation pro/ect# $his development taught me ho' to

colla%orate on a research pro/ect as 'ell as ho' to relinquish control# It 'ouldn)t

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have %een e:cient for me to head %oth pro/ects so my colleague 'as given

primary status on the %u%%le deformation pro/ect 'hile I 'as then a%le to spend

more time on my ;o'ing emulsion research 'hile still %eing availa%le to help my

colleague if needed# All three of these pro/ects have led to presentations at soft

condensed matter physics and general physics conferences#

As I)ve progressed in my academic career I have %ecome increasingly sure

that I made the right decision 'hen I %ecome as physics ma/or# I still plan to "nish

my math ma/or %ut I do not have the same passion or s!ill for pure mathematics as

I do for applied math and physics 'hich my transcript grades so# 2ven if my math

courses have lo'ered my overall comple+ systems

providing me 'ith !no'ledge and s!ills that 'ill surely prove valua%le 'hen I apply

to graduate school as 'ell as many other facets of my life#