麻豆淫院

As a high school student, Morgan Knuesel was counseled to avoid a class in physics, because it was too 鈥榟ard鈥�; this week, she graduates with a degree in physics, summa cum laude,听and is the 2023 outstanding graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences

For two years, other high school kids in Castle Rock, Colorado, persuaded Morgan Knuesel not to take a physics course, which they said was too hard. In her junior year, however, an administrative error placed her in that widely feared class.

鈥淎s it turned out, physics was the perfect marriage of math and science for me,鈥� said Knuesel, who graduates this week with a degree in physics,听summa cum laude. She also has been designated as the 2023 outstanding graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder College of Arts and Sciences. In the fall, she heads to Yale University to pursue a PhD in physics.

The evidence shows that Knuesel鈥檚 peers were, simply, wrong.

By the time she got to high school, Knuesel had learned to love science, but the warnings about physics鈥� difficulty prompted her to plot a course toward a medical degree. Once in the physics course, things clicked for her:

鈥淚n physics, math is a tool to understand the complex workings of the universe,鈥� Knuesel said. 鈥淭hough high school level physics deals mostly with problems like blocks-on-ramps and simple pendula, I felt comfort in being able to deeply understand these systems. This changed the course of my life.鈥�

She applied to college as a physics major and took AP physics in high school. 鈥淚n this class, there were (to my best memory) about 14 students, four of whom were women,鈥� she recalled, adding: 鈥淚 was oblivious to the larger systemic gender gap in physics at the time鈥擨 just wanted to show the men that I could do better than them.鈥�

Mission accomplished.

Knuesel applied to only two colleges: CU Boulder and the University of Denver. 鈥淎fter touring both, I knew that CU Boulder would be my home. It's fortunate that CU also has an incredibly successful and supportive physics department! I feel like I've thrived here.鈥�

In 2021, Knuesel joined the nuclear experiment research group led by Professors Dennis Perepelitsa and James Nagle, where she has been 鈥渘othing short of outstanding,鈥� Nagle wrote.听

She graduated with a 3.970 grade-point average and got rave reviews for her defense of her honors thesis, 鈥淚nvestigations of Jet Quenching in 5.02 TeV Event Selection in Peripheral PbPb Collisions with ATLAS.鈥� ATLAS is a general-purpose particle-physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Nagle hailed Knuesel鈥檚 鈥渋mpressive鈥� ability to independently develop the tools for analyzing data, and her 鈥渆xcellent communication skills鈥� in giving group meeting and ATLAS-level presentations.鈥澨�

Knuesel demonstrated this ability as she described her research to a non-physicist who asked if she worked in the realm of the probabilistic or deterministic: 鈥淎t a sub-atomic level, at a quantum level 鈥� we鈥檙e trying to understand the strong nuclear force, which dominates at the level of 10^-15听meters, so super-super small. We鈥檙e dealing with particles smaller than protons. So, that is entirely probabilistic, but what we actually measure is deterministic, such as the energy lost by a particle that travels through the detector material.鈥�

鈥淪o, in the great view of things, we鈥檙e trying to reconstruct this probabilistic theory out of deterministic things you can measure,鈥� she observed.

Meanwhile, 鈥淥ne of my big passions is helping more women get involved in physics, because there鈥檚 a systemic problem of women and under-represented minorities being pushed out of science鈥� in the U.S. education system at large, she noted.

At CU Boulder, she does this by speaking with other women in physics, discussing things like how to gain a research position and how to assert oneself in a research position, professional development, tips on writing papers, and help with making presentations.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 been a big passion of mine that I hope to continue to be able to work on in graduate school,鈥� Knuesel said.

She has been active in CU Boulder鈥檚 Women and Gender Minorities in Physics.听

鈥淔rom my observations, she is running the show, and this serves a very important role here in Boulder,鈥� Nagle said, adding:

鈥淚 have worked with many undergraduate students over the last 20 years, and she is really one of the very best.鈥澨�

听