WHS grad published in physics journal
Hannah Weaver spent dozens of hours in a physics lab last summer making precise adjustments to lasers and other scientific equipment. Now that time in the lab has paid off as her work has been published in Physical Review, a leading international journal.
Guided by professor Andrew Kortyna, Weaver participated in an internship at Pennsylvania’s Lafayette College, where she is a junior.
“There were 25 different little pieces to adjust on the equipment,” she said “There’s no science to it, you just adjust it and see if it’s correct. It would take me all morning or afternoon to set it up.”
Even though the work was challenging, Weaver, a 2010 graduate of Whitefish High School, enjoyed the opportunity to move beyond the classroom. Lafayette is unique in that it doesn’t have a graduate program so undergraduate students often get the opportunity to work on research projects.
“I like learning that wasn’t like in school — it was all applied,” she said. “I didn’t have to read a textbook and do homework. I liked learning on my own and making mistakes. I felt like a scientist because I was doing the experiment.”
Weaver used lasers to study the structure of atomic cesium. The element is important for its use in atomic clocks and research on cesium could result in more accurate timing. GPS would not work without those types of clocks.
Along with her professor, Weaver will present the research at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics conference in Quebec, Canada. She will also present the research at a conference for women in physics at Cornell University.
Weaver said the work provided her an opportunity she wouldn’t otherwise have had and opened up a whole new world of physics.
“I wouldn’t get any undergraduate training in atomic physics otherwise,” she said. “Theoretical physics is a lot of math and equations, but there is a whole other side of physics. There’s working in a lab and doing experiments. This made me realize I want to go into experimental physics.”
Growing up she had a telescope, which she used to look at the Milky Way and also memorized the constellations. Then two math projects in high school piqued her interest in physics. Through those projects she began watching videos and reading books on theoretical physics.
“I didn’t realize that physics is divided into theoretical and experimental,” she said. “Then I got to college and saw the labs. I asked to work on a project in the lab last fall and see what it was like. That really opened my eyes.”
Her minor, in classical civilizations, she calls a break from the rigorous study of math and science. She enjoys studying Greek society, plays and art.
“When you’re looking at art you can’t be right or wrong,” she said. “It’s a different way of looking at things than science. It’s important because you don’t want to become too narrow minded in your thinking.”
Weaver is excited about attending graduate school and learning more as she narrows her field of study in physics, which she says she enjoys because it’s studying the “fundamentals of what the universe is made of.”