Since the second week of school, I have been attending physics club meetings once a week. These meetings host different speakers who talk about different topics related to physics. Listening to these speakers has helped me in multiple ways. At one of these meetings, the speakers were a panel of undergraduate students who were involved in research. We were able to ask this panel questions that we had about research. By listening to their answers, I was able to learn about how to get started on research, what kind of research I could get involved in, and what professors were good with undergraduate researchers. Also, at these meetings there have been multiple speakers that talked about their research. This allowed me to see what kind of research was being done in different branches of physics. This helped me feel more confident about my major choice and also my career path. After going to these meetings I am now more ready to contact professors to start research and I am more informed about what topics I should research.
In the future, I hope to remember the specific tips I received about contacting professors regarding research. These tips included using databases to find professors doing research at OSU, and to read their recent publications to see if their research is on an interesting topic. The next step after identifying a professor to work with, is to contact the professor through email. This email should mention the professors work, be concise, and mention times for a possible meeting to discuss working with them. I have also learned not to let the fact that I am a freshman keep me from reaching out to professors. Additionally, I would like to remember the interesting research being done in the condensed matter field in hopes of incorporating it into my research in the future.
