2025 Lucy Engel Undergraduate Research Symposium

On May 8th, UA Physics undergraduates showcased their research at the Lucy Engel Undergraduate Research Symposium. The event featured both presentation and poster sessions. Faculty judges will select winners for each category, the results will be announced on May 16th at the Department of Physics graduation ceremony.

 

Thank you to the symposium organizers, David Smith and Kristy Merdinger.
 

A heartfelt thanks also goes to our benefactor, John Engel. John, your ongoing support for the UA Physics Department is deeply appreciated! This symposium carries the memory of Lucy Engel. Lucy was born in Peru, Kansas, and came of age during the Great Depression. Though she didn’t have the chance to earn a four-year college degree herself, she made it her mission for all her children to succeed academically. Two of her children achieved advanced degrees—one became a medical doctor, and the other, John, earned a doctorate in physics! Lucy always emphasized the significance of higher education and generously supported both family and non-family members in pursuing their college dreams. Her legacy, including her bequest to the University of Arizona for the Physics Undergraduate Research Symposium and donations to various other colleges, reflects her commitment to education and her nurturing spirit.

 

And finally, thank you to all the undergraduate presenters:
 

Oral Presentations
 

Tugg Ernster  Machine Learning with Graph Neural Network for ttHH Identification

Keenan Fiedler  Creating a Galaxy Cluster Simulation to Constrain Cosmology

Tristen Shields  Density Profiles of Dynamical Dark Matter Haloes

Colton Quirk  Scientific Visualization of Photon Ring Formation and Imaging

Eason Wang  Accelerating Kinematic Lensing Inference Using Neural Networks

Megan Harrison  Mapping HCN Gas within the L1495 Filament of the Taurus Molecular Cloud to Probe for Large-Scale Flow

Aurora Wilde  ALMA and JWST Imaging of z> 6 Quasars
 

Poster Presenters
 

Nikoli Cooper CMOS Characterization with Photon Transfer Curves

Camille Cioffi Mass Loss and Pre-supernova Properties of Massive Stars

Diego Flores Finding the Cosmology Dependence of the Halo-Mass

Correlation Function

Zeke DeLaughter Asteroid Taxonomic Characterizations with near-IR and Visible Light Observations

Luke Cummings Stochastic Thermodynamics of a Quantum Subsystem

Frederic Penney Dissipative Thermodynamics in an Open Quantum System