Physics PhD student Charlotte Zehnder’s Internship at NASA

Charlotte Zehnder, is a Physics PhD student at the University of Arizona interested in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Physics. During the Summer of 2024, Charlotte interned with the new Quantum Engineering and Sensing Technology (QuEST) lab at Goddard Space Flight Center, helping build their new cold atom interferometry lab. With this laser cooling infrastructure, NASA scientists will conduct precision gravity measurements and more effectively interface with the broader AMO community.

Charlotte says of her experience, “I worked on a variety of projects including testing the feasibility of using a commercially available laser for trapping strontium ions and testing the performance of an industry partner’s compact frequency comb.” This Fall 2024, Charlotte returned to University of Arizona as a Space Grant graduate fellow, where she has worked on physics outreach in the Tucson community.