Books

A little more than two years ago there was a challenge floating around my neighborhood of the internet. It was very straightforward: read 100 books in 2010. I decided to try it, so I tracked the books I read in 2010, and got to 67 books. Admittedly, that's on average more than a book a week, so that's not bad. This year, I tried again. And today I finished the 100th book I've read this year!
Next year my goal is to read 50 books in English, 5 livres en francais, and 50 scholarly articles. The French books will probably be the kicker, but I've only read about a dozen articles this year, so that could be too. We'll see- it depends on where I'm looking for background for my thesis in the spring and what I'm doing after graduation.
Anyway, back to working on my grad school apps, now that I've finished my book. I've submitted 5 apps, but that means I have 6 to go.

Published! Update on Janus particle research.

One of the articles I collaborated on this summer (at my REU at Lehigh) is now published as a letter in Langmuir, a physical chemistry journal.

Self Assembly of Janus Ellipsoids

Applying to Graduate School; Warnings

So, I have my final list of graduate programs all put together, my recommenders all have their information, I've put together my resume, started work on my personal statement...the one problem is transcripts. There's a strike of the union workers at l'Universite de Sherbrooke (in Quebec province) where I did my study abroad. So those transcripts are taking up to a month to arrive, which I did not count on. Plus, they cannot currently fax them, so they're taking that long to get mailed to the translation service too. So much for everything being on time, let's hope a note of explanation will help the admissions committee. Anyway, my advice for today is to be prepared early with transcripts and translations if you study at any non-English speaking institution.

In other news, I am not going to grad school in physics because I realized how important it is to me to precisely understand the math involved. I get very frustrated with handwaving explanations and using math I don't fully understand. So I am mostly applying to applied math programs. I want to still look at modeling the physical world, but from a mathematically rigorous position. In fact, I am generally as interested in the math as the physics, and find the math to come more naturally. I am still applying to the MIT-WHOI program in physical oceanography, but I have an internship there for January and will decide then whether that is what I would rather pursue.
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Grad School Apps

Hi all,
If anyone reading this would like to comment on the graduate programs I am examining, please do so in the comments. I am interested in statistical/continuum mechanics, particularly fluid dynamics, colloids, and granular media. I am willing to come at research from the fields of math, physics, or oceanography. Here are the programs I am considering at the moment:
Physics: Duke, Brandeis, UMass Amherst, UChicago, NYU, Clark, Emory, Georgetown U
Applied Physics: Harvard
Mathematics: RPI, NCSU, NYU
Applied Mathematics: Columbia, Brown, NJIT (mathematical sciences, joint program with Rutgers)
Oceanography: MIT-WHOI, looking for another

I want to get this down to 5 math programs, 5 physics, and up to 2 oceanography to actually apply to.

Lehigh REU 2011 Results (Janus Ellipsoids)

Hi all,
Once again I don't really have time to write much (unpacking, repacking, GREs, family visits, you know). So, I will direct you firstly to the paper that the Lehigh research group is working on publishing. It's up at the ArXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2571 (not my own project, but it's what inspired all the work I did [and yes, I helped write it, woo having my name on there]).

From what was 90% my own sweat tears and blood, here's the poster on my project:

Hopefully it'll be a paper some day, but the grad student who's theoretically been working on writing it hasn't responded to my emails this week, so I don't know what's happening there. Oh well. I'm planning to take the poster to the March APS meeting, so if you have questions that aren't easy to ask in writing, you could ask me then.
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Lehigh REU research: a Brief summary

Below you'll find the 'abstract' we'll be sending to the NSF summarizing my summer work. I did some other stuff besides what's mentioned, and later I'll give more details, but for now I just want to put something up before I leave tomorrow.

Monte Carlo Simulations

A Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is a method commonly used in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.  While in general MC is just a sampling scheme, it is normally used for importance sampling.  The MC method starts from a given 'position' and takes a random walk, returning information from wherever it travels.  With importance sampling, MC does not take a purely random walk, but instead will take a random step and then check the final position against some requirement. If the final position meets the requirements, the information for that position is recorded as data and a new step is tried. Otherwise, the simulation goes back and takes a new random step.

Pontification, Pondering, and Some Things to Read

Hello,
I know I usually write about science. But today I spent a long lunch break discussing religion with one of my colleagues. And one reason she kept bringing up for her faith in God guiding her actions in life is the desire to work towards God's good, because what He considers good may not make sense to us flawed humans.

Janus Particles and Spheres

So, posting about the project right away didn't happen because deciding on the project didn't happen and then coding didn't happen. But now it all has!

I'm working in theoretical statistical mechanics with Professor Jim Gunton at Lehigh. More specifically, this summer the research group is studying anisotropic (orientation-dependent) Janus particles.

Lehigh Physics REU Day 1

Hi all,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but finals happened. Now I have moved in to my dorm at Lehigh for the summer REU program. While I haven't actually met my adviser yet, I have found relevant offices, buildings, shops, etc. I also got an ID and met most of the other students in the program. It looks, oddly enough, like we have more women than men. Which is not good in terms of showering, but is good in terms of the future of physics (at least in my mind).
Anyway, I will actually get started tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow night I will describe my project (aka after I figure out what I'm doing I'll put it here so I don't forget the end goals).
I hope everyone out there is managing the summer job thing alright.

Consider Quebec

Having returned from l'Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec province in Canada and visited my friends at a couple of American schools, I have a few things to say about the education system. Primarily that I like Quebec's better.

That Whole Internet Thing

I got another notice from Academia.edu that someone was searching for me in Google. Now, I have no idea how they track these things, and I'm not interested in learning (yes, I bet all my compsci friends would leap at the chance to consider the problem), but it does mean I think I'd like to link up my various websites as much as possible. In other words, this post won't say much. But, in case you were interested:
I'm at Academia.edu. I'm also on Facebook.

First batch of scientific papers; Insulin Particle Formation

[This post will be edited as I read.]

So, I am going to try to work my way through the 4 papers I have been sent so far by my summer internship. Now, I should be writing essays so I can finish the term, but I'm not having any luck. At least this is more productive than watching tv.
I will give the abstract and journal for each of these papers (one here, then more posts), and then I will be adding definitions to terms that I had to look up, plus my summary of each part of the paper. These are my notes, so that I have a working base of knowledge when I read more papers in the future, but maybe they will be of use to someone.

Insulin Particle Formation in Supersaturated Aqueous Solutions of Poly(Ethylene Glycol)

Lev Bromberg, Julia Rashba-Step and Terrence Scott

Epic Therapeutics, Inc., Norwood, Massachusetts 02062

Biophysical Journal, Volume 89, Issue 5, 3424-3433, 1 November 2005

My Summer Plans and Advice on Your Summer Plans

Hi all.
I am very excited to be able to say that I have my summer plans set. I will be taking part in Lehigh's REU in physics. I will be working with Professor Gunton on modeling proteins self-assembling from solution. I know next to nothing about the topic, but I have a couple of Professor Gunton's recent papers, so I will read them and know slightly more soon.

Khan Academy

My father actually introduced me to this site, http://www.khanacademy.org/. It claims to be the beginning of an educational revolution (though maybe not in those words). There seem to be two goals, the first being to make education accessible to all people, and the second being to allow the possibility of "flipping the classroom". A good introduction talk is the video on their main page, Salman Khan talk at TED 2011 (from ted.com), which is also on youtube. 

Really awesome physics simulator

I was sent this link last summer, and the videos blew my mind. In case the link's not working for you, it goes to an article about Lagoa Multiphysics, a 3D graphics program. Now, I know next to nothing about how physics simulations are done for videos (video games, movies, and all that), but based on how complicated physics is for a two-body system, it blows my mind that people are able to get such realistic models for such complicated motions. I'd love to see the approximations used for all this stuff. Oh, and if you're the type who wants to do this kind of work, friends of mine at RPI have complained enough about programing the physics for a computer game that I'm pretty sure studying there would be a good first step.

Calculus of Variations

     I am currently taking a class in the calculus of variations.  I find it an odd course, since it is taught in French, each class is almost entirely lecture, and we have neither a textbook nor any graded homework.  Regardless of my personal confusion as to the pedagogic methods (well, except the French- that's because I'm at a French-speaking university), I have learned quite a bit about the calculus of variations. My first introduction was in my mechanics class, through Taylor's Classical Mechanics, and while I found the Euler-Lagrange equation as covered in my class useful, the generalizations I have learned this term could have been and could continue to be useful.

Coulomb Pucks Introduction

My part of the first research project I have been part of was called “Electric charge memory design using finite element methods in Java”.  I worked on this during the summer of 2010 and continued work during that fall term, until I got too busy with my coursework (around the end of October).  This project is led by Professor Andrew Skinner and has involved other students in previous years (currently, spring 2011, my friend Lyle is working on another piece).  I was examining the electric field of a conducting cylindrical disk with rounded edges and a cylindrical central opening.  The majority of the research involved programming and evaluating a numerical model of the electrical potential and electric field in order to gain an understanding of the relationship between the radius of curvature and electric field at the edges of the conductor.  Several particular designs of these disks, “Coulomb Pucks”, were also evaluated.  The goal is for the disks to hold charge as steadily and long as possible when chemically coated with an insulating layer on the exterior surfaces.  The intended application of the final product is to demonstrate and examine electrical properties in physics courses.  An additional product is the program which calculates the fields of the puck which can be re-purposed for a charged conductor of any shape, and can then be applied to future research in the field.

More information on this product will be put on another page, accessible from the right panel; from there, click on "Home" in that panel to get back to the main page (yes, that may seem obvious, but one of these days my grandmother may want to read this, or yours).

Physics and Philosophy Review

Modern physics, the realm of physics containing relativity and quantum theory, set the scientific world buzzing during the first half of the 20th century.  Since it also allowed the creation of the atomic bomb, the entire world became concerned with the matter.  Werner Heisenberg, who played an important role in the development of modern physics (you know- the Heisenberg uncertainty principle) and won a Nobel Prize for his work, considers the philosophical impact of modern physics in Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science.  This book compares the conceptual understanding of reality through the lenses of quantum physics and major philosophers’ formulations.  

Statics of Granular Materials

Hello,
One of the first things I'm going to try to put together on here is an introductory text on granular materials. Everything I know at the moment is based off an independent study I did in the summer of 2010, but as it fascinates me I imagine I will learn more and add to the text.  I am putting it up as a page, so you can get to it from the right- it's beneath "Home". I apologize for the awkwardness of the page, as it is just one giant document, but once I learn how to program internal links, there will be a table of contents at the top. A note on use: you are welcome to use the information and to quote me, but cite your source; if you are using the material when teaching, please send me an email (I just want to know, you are welcome to use it this way); if you are making/plan to make money off of it, get in touch asap so I don't sue/plan to sue you: this is my work, and I'm sure we can come to an agreement.

Book Review: The Red Queen

LONG LIVE THE RED QUEEN

by Jay Brett

Sex permeates the American culture, from our commercials to our political debates. Certainly college students spend a significant portion of their free time searching out or talking about sex. For anyone who is interested in why humans devote so much energy to sex and love and why we find it so challenging to find a good partner, I would recommend skipping Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus and reading The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature instead.

Current Resume (ish)

Below you will find a version of my resume, containing information geared primarily toward academia and research. Many things are left out here (for instance, I spent a summer selling kitchen knives once), but this is a good overview in case any recruiters are looking for this type of information.

Introduction to me

Hi!

My name is Genevieve Brett, but I generally go by Jay. I am currently an undergraduate student majoring in physics and mathematics through Skidmore College. I say "through" because this term I am abroad at the Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada. I am starting this blog to keep track of research projects and ideas and anything that I think would be useful to other people in my field. I am planning to go to graduate school, most likely in applied mathematics, and so I am following Matt Might's advice to blog, as his reasoning seemed justified, and I imagine that any notes I decide are important enough to put here now could be useful in the future.

All right, I'll start putting up more soon, but that's all for now.