The Man Who Made Me a Physicist by Megan

The Man Who Made Me a Physicist by Megan - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

Nobody expects a nervous fifteen year old with no experience to make much of a contribution to
physics research projects. I quickly learned that after sending emails to physics professors and researchers at Washington University at St. Louis, a university in my area, to ask about potentially shadowing one of them over the summer or getting involved in a research project.

After sending out the many emails and looking into each professor’s research interests individually, providing a description of my relevant coursework and coding experience outside of school, and asking what I thought were pretty good personalized questions about their work, I was confident that somebody would find me interesting enough to respond. But after weeks of checking my email feverishly, my hopes were crushed. I realized that it was probably too ambitious of an ask, seeing as busy researchers hardly had time for their students, let alone a community member who hadn’t even taken calculus. So, I resigned myself to a research-less fate.

Until one of my many emails led to a researcher at Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Dr. Pablo Giuliani. When I first heard his name (and, well, googled him), I was expecting some kind of intimidating physicist that would take one look at me and decide that I wasn’t worth his time. But when I joined a zoom meeting with him for the first time, I realized he was pretty much the nicest person I had ever met. He seemed genuinely interested in me, and I felt as if I mattered. He told me off the bat that I shouldn’t refer to him as “Dr. Giuliani” and instead by his first name. We continued to meet every week on Tuesdays for the next couple of months. He would pull up Notability on his iPad and walk me through the math and conceptual ideas of his research.

Pablo was the first person who had ever treated me like I could genuinely be useful. He gave me a task of rewriting the first chapter of a databook on his research, which focused on reduced basis methods, or RBMs. The first chapter had to do with a toy problem–a simple physics system that can be solved easily– in order to teach students about easy ways to implement RBMs. It would’ve taken a graduate student practically no time at all, but it took me months. Throughout the entire process, Pablo was extremely supportive. He never minded explaining the same concept multiple times when I got confused, or searching for a fun metaphor to explain something extremely complicated. He has an incredible knack for taking very complicated ideas, like Galerkin projection, and coming up with real-life metaphors that make everything suddenly click. In general, though, he is the best teacher I have ever had. He is extremely patient, thoughtful, and shockingly good at explaining things. In the words of one of his colleagues, he “could teach quantum mechanics to a kindergartener.”

After I finished the databook chapter, I moved on to a different project, implementing a different kind of RBM to some physical systems. I was joined by other high school students who were interested in Pablo’s research and had done another program at FRIB. Right off the bat, Pablo made sure that everybody felt confident and comfortable in the group. He ensured that everybody would find something to work on, even if they didn’t possess certain skills (such as calculus or coding). He also assured his repeatedly that there was no rush on the project, something that was very comforting to a bunch of stressed out high schoolers.

Pablo met with us sometimes twice a week, an incredible feat because of his incredibly busy schedule. His todo list requires multiple whiteboards! But despite how busy he is, he always makes time for a group of high school students for no reason other than the fact he wanted to help students pursue their interest in physics. We are extremely grateful for that opportunity, seeing as there aren’t many people who make the time to support high school students.

Mentors like Pablo are extremely rare. He was willing to respond to me when I needed coding help or had questions, take time out of his day to explain a physics problem to a high school freshman who was struggling in her physics class, write a recommendation letter that made me cry and help me write a research abstract to submit in my MIT application an hour before the deadline. Pablo made me feel confident that I could become a physicist, and he also made me feel like I mattered, as a person. I spent two weeks at FRIB over the summer, and I got to meet other students my age and undergrads that worked with Pablo. We got to bond over the impact he has had on our lives. All of us are very inspired by the commitment Pablo has to his work, his kindness, and his amazing teaching ability. If it wasn’t for him,, I would not be where I am today. I am eternally grateful for all of the support I have received from him, and I am so grateful that our paths have crossed.