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Hi everyone!
I've been lurking around here for a while and thought it was about time I introduce myself.
I'm a recent college graduate working as a full time researcher for a few months before I head off to graduate school where I'll pursue a PhD in physics. I'm in the field of quantum optics working for the man who basically inspired much of what quantum optics is today. Some days I just can't believe how fortunate I was to land this job. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to get to work alongside Nobel laureates, national academy members, and the physicists who literally wrote the books on all things quantum science. Not only do I love the people I work with, but optics is an absolutely beautiful field. <3
Any other physicists here? Any laser physicists in particular? I'm entertaining the idea of making a weekly-ish blog where I go chapter by chapter through a quantum optics textbook and basically translate everything into simpler terms that can, at least qualitatively, be understood by someone decently versed in physics. Setting a goal like that will probably be enough to finally convince myself to devote time to keeping my theory up to speed since much of my time at work is spent in the lab... though admittedly it might be a dull read. :/
Outside of school/research I love to run and clearly, since I'm here, I like to Starcraft. My now ex got me into the game and for some reason it just clicked with me. I used to be a girl who would sort of judge the guys who were obsessed with video games, and here I am typing up a TL blog on my blackwidow while watching TaeJa stream on the other monitor. Oh how things change. I think it's the mental challenge the game presents that I love so much, and the satisfaction of noticing yourself improve. Successfully holding off those silly cheeses for the first time is the best feeling ever.  The community is absolutely amazing too. I think it's impossible not to take interest sc2 after watching big tournaments where the casters, players, and crowd are just absolutely outstanding and make the game exciting, even for viewers who know nothing about it.
I've been playing for about 6ish months and I'm still hanging out in silver, though so far this season I've been beating a lot of gold/plats and have >60% win rates vs all 3 races, so maybeee a promotion is on the way? Oh, and I play zerg on NA, by the way.
So anyway, I was brought into the scene by a friend who is no longer around, and am now looking forward to connecting with new people that I can share my interests in sc2 with! At least until I start grad school in August, then I'll probably drop off the face of the earth for 4-5 years. 
If you took the time to read through all of that, thanks! It's nice to meet you!
Oh, and if anyone in bronze/silver/gold (or higher leagues, if you want a confidence boost) is looking for a practice partner, message me! I'd love to play!
 
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United States23455 Posts
Nice to meet you :D. I regret to say I don't share the interest (or skill) in physics but congrats on your acceptance into grad school! You should post in the LR threads if you are watching any tournaments. It's good fun!
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i always like to read sciency stuff.
can i ask what you are researching?
what do you think of the show the big bang theory?
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i made several forays into quantum science but i never actually understood anything of it. would read your blog (if it made sense to me).
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Kinda in the same situation as you, 2 year student in biophysics taking optics and quantum classes
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I pledge my sword in service to you my fair female.
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Welcome! Now come join us in spewing nonsense repeatedly in the LR threads :D
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Aw, I'm excited about the positive feedback on the quantum optics blog! I'll definitely start putting something together!
On April 23 2014 12:37 icystorage wrote:
i always like to read sciency stuff.
can i ask what you are researching?
what do you think of the show the big bang theory?
I started working there as an undergrad, and I've been in charge of 3 major projects. One was the construction of a laser system, which was one of my favorite things I've done. It's pretty awesome to be able to say I built a laser. I spent a semester testing the waters in theory, but I think I was too young to really enjoy it then. I was studying lasing without inversion and the potential to use those quantum coherence effects for the generation of long wavelength laser-like light.
Currently, I’m working on very applied stuff. I’m collaborating with a radio-biologist on a series of projects that involve studying the effects of radiation on biological systems using advanced optical spectroscopic techniques (Raman spectroscopy and its many variations). Raman spectroscopy/microscopy is good for studying biological systems because it is non-invasive and non-disruptive; at the powers and wavelengths we use, we can study cellular functions without interfering/influencing the cell’s behavior. This is different than traditional fluorescence imaging methods which require you to inject dyes and stuff into the system or fix (kill) the cell, and provides much higher resolution than something like a typical lab microscope could provide. Also, Raman spectroscopy gives you chemical information, not structural. So we can look at the spectra and say which chemicals are present at which parts of the cell and how they change in time; we can watch, at the molecular level, the chemical effects of radiation on something like DNA.
Ha. You can't say you're a physicist without being asked about the big bang theory. I don't watch the show much, but I definitely back the theory it's titled after. And real high energy physicists aren't nearly as entertaining as that show makes you believe they are.
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i dont want to sound rude, just curious. so what is the purpose of the sepctroscopy? we already know that radiation is bad o.o (no offense meant)
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No offense taken
Radiation is bad for healthy cells, but it's good for cancer cells. We know little about what goes on at the molecular level when tissue is irradiated. We know DNA is damaged and that's bad for the cells, and that's why cancer cells (or healthy irradiated cells) stop proliferating. We don't know what happens to everything else though. The cell tries to repair itself if the right proteins are left unharmed, but which ones are unharmed? Does repair fail because the proteins were damaged or because the DNA damage was too severe for the cell to fix itself? Beyond that, some cells are resistant to radiation damage, and we want to understand why, that way we can use this knowledge to overcome the resistance to kill bad cells, or to protect healthy cells.
For fun, an interesting example of this is radiotrophic fungi. It's taken over the Chernobyl site, in locations where humans can only enter for seconds before they are exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. It converts gamma radiation to chemical energy and grows like crazy. Can we learn something from this fungus and use it to help people who accidentally receive severe doses of radiation?
So many questions worth answering!
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thanks for patiently answering its nice to know people like you are actually trying to make the world a better place. good luck and will be reading your blog about quantum optics! (start by answering what makes it quantum in the first place! <- which would be my first question about it)
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Hi, welcome to teamliquid.
On April 23 2014 13:42 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
I pledge my sword in service to you my fair female.
WAFFLES
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FREEAGLELAND26782 Posts
Hi there~
I would enjoy reading dumbed-down physics. Welcome to TL.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
You should start OPing LR threads because the LRJL needs more lady member aside from Scarlett
unless i demote stuchiu back to being Hawkgirl
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Welcome to TL! (Or posting on tl I guess )
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Korea (South)11593 Posts
gosh i find physics so incredibly fascinating. i just wish I could understand science well. you ma'm are amazing
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Hi
If you want a real mans Womans game try Broodwar, its much more fun than sc2
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dang Phd in physics.. man that's a rough journey
Which grad school?
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i have a bachelor physics degree from a university that specializes in laser optics, but i switched to computer science/programming/electronics afterwards because of shifted interest and vastly better payment also helps.
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From what I understand, in the States, employment also tends to be an interesting predicament for physics Phds. Outside of academia, the theory guys can always go to finance I guess. In any case, people I know in optics are all from the EE side, but it seems like there's enough industry work to go around right now. So, I'm sure OP will be fine after completing her Phd. That 5 year grind though...
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United States7481 Posts
tl banling Micronesia has his Bachelor's in Physics, although he decided against going to PhD and wasn't doing optics
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Italy12246 Posts
Welcome to TL
I have a bachelor's in physics and im currently studying for a Master's in astrophysics.
Regular physics blogs would be awesome and, in fact, some day (not earlier than next semester tho) i'd be happy to help and do some astrophysics stuff too.
And real high energy physicists aren't nearly as entertaining as that show makes you believe they are.
Dunno, we have a couple people here who are basically exactly like Sheldon xD
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On April 23 2014 22:05 c0ldfusion wrote:
dang Phd in physics.. man that's a rough journey
Which grad school?
Rice University. I had an NSF REU there last summer and just love the school and the professor I should be working for.
With respect to jobs, it is very true that finding a job with a PhD in physics is difficult. That’s why I’m not doing research in pure physics or doing theory…even though its sometimes tempting. The research I’ll do at Rice is in the field of biomedical optics. My PhD will say physics, my classes will be all the usual grad physics classes, and the professor I am going to work with is a physicist, but she runs a biomedical optics/ biomedical engineering lab. I’ll be developing optical diagnostic systems for early cancer detection… specifics I don’t know yet, but that’s the broad project statement. Careers in this area are not hard to come by, and biomedical optics has been gaining a lot of momentum recently with all of the recent advancements in optics, nanotechnology, and cancer biology. All of these sciences are starting to merge, leading to the development of some amazing diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. I'm pretty thrilled to get to be a part of it.
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United States24755 Posts
On April 23 2014 22:51 Antoine wrote:
tl banling Micronesia has his Bachelor's in Physics, although he decided against going to PhD and wasn't doing optics
Also a Masters in physics! Yeah PhD didn't seem worth it to me.
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Have you followed the Korean Professional Broodwar scene, prior to ~2012? Pretty much the most entertaining/stimulating thing I have ever seen.
Consequently, I made a serious effort to try and follow the Pro SC2 scene, when the switch was made. I found it un-watchable though, from both an entertainment and intellectual standpoint.
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Hi,
Fellow TL lurker here. I'm a chemist, but did an honours, a couple years of RA and half a PhD in a laser spectroscopy lab. My focus was largely around gas phase irradiation of microparticles. Would definitely be interested in reading a physics based blog, as it been a while since I've done any proper science. And congratulations in getting what sounds like a pretty sweet spot for a doctorate!
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On April 24 2014 05:53 Ideal26 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 23 2014 22:05 c0ldfusion wrote:
dang Phd in physics.. man that's a rough journey
Which grad school? Rice University. I had an NSF REU there last summer and just love the school and the professor I should be working for. With respect to jobs, it is very true that finding a job with a PhD in physics is difficult. That’s why I’m not doing research in pure physics or doing theory…even though its sometimes tempting. The research I’ll do at Rice is in the field of biomedical optics. My PhD will say physics, my classes will be all the usual grad physics classes, and the professor I am going to work with is a physicist, but she runs a biomedical optics/ biomedical engineering lab. I’ll be developing optical diagnostic systems for early cancer detection… specifics I don’t know yet, but that’s the broad project statement. Careers in this area are not hard to come by, and biomedical optics has been gaining a lot of momentum recently with all of the recent advancements in optics, nanotechnology, and cancer biology. All of these sciences are starting to merge, leading to the development of some amazing diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. I'm pretty thrilled to get to be a part of it.
Congrats! lol I have family going to Rice next year.
And yeah, from what little I hear, there is a good amount of excitement in optics right now.
Sounds awesome, good luck with your Phd!
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EPT
