About Me
I am a graduate student in the physics department at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. I am a graduate assistant and will be serving the department as a graduate assistant. I am fluent in FORTRAN 90/95, and have a little experience in C/C++. I also know how to use Mathematica 6.0 well. I recently graduated from the physics department at Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in computational physics. At Illinois State University, I studied both physics and computational physics, specifically, Monte Carlo simulations, artificial neural networks, quantum mechanics, mechanics, and nonlinear dynamics. In the area of nonlinear dynamics, I performed computational work in relation to particles in a magnetic neutral line field, approximating Lyapunov Characteristic Exponents, and work with cellular automata.
Why did I choose the to do something crazy like major in physics? I am crazy like that. I actually went out of my way to take physics in high school. My high school, Calvary Baptist Academy, did not offer anything beyond pre-physics and that was rolled into a pre-chemistry, pre-physics class called Physical Science. I ended up taking physics at Normal Community High School, which was fun. I got leave CBA after lunch and travel basically across town to take the class. The teacher, Mr. Scott, was an awesome teacher, the class was really interesting. When we studied circuits, we paired up and actually used batteries and wires to make circuits. The system we used was called CASTLE, Capacitor Aided System for Teaching and Learning Electronics. I knew that I wanted to do physics my junior year in high school.
I ended up going to college at Illinois State University. I started out in the Physics for Scientists and Engineers 1 (PHY 110) my freshman year. Then I took Physics for Scientist and Engineers 2 (PHY 111) the next semester. Next I took Chaos and Complexity (PHY 206). Followed by Physics for Scientist and Engineers 3, Mechanics, Methods of Theoretical Physics (PHY 217), Experimental Physics (PHY270), Quantum Mechanics (PHY 284), and Methods of Computational Physics (PHY 318). In the Advanced Computational Physics (PHY 388) class, computational work specifically related to physics was done.
So why was I insane and chose to something as hard as physics? I just like doing math and physics uses a lot of math. Actually, once I complete my physics track, I am only one class away from having a math minor. As a GA, I am looking forward to getting some preactice in instructing my peers in a field that they most likely know nothing about.
