Humans of St. Norbert:

“Over the summer, I worked under a National Science Foundation grant, conducting research in condensed matter physics/materials science. My research primarily focused on studying a system of metallic alloys containing various atomic percentages of copper, zirconium and aluminum with the intent of tracking structural changes as the atomic percentage of aluminum was increased. Using scripts my fellow researchers, Sarah Bertrand and Peadar McGrath, and I wrote in Python. I analyzed data collected by collaborators on the alloys I was studying. The ultimate goal of my work was to determine how atomic structure impacts the glass-forming ability of an alloy.

My favorite part of the summer research was watching myself and my fellow undergraduates grow in understanding and confidence. For example, we started the summer having had very minimal experience with Python or other coding languages, but by the end, we were writing our own complicated scripts to analyze data. After completing my undergraduate degrees in English and physics, I am hoping to either attend graduate school for physics or work at a national laboratory, and this research experience was an instrumental step on my journey.” – Leah Zimmer ’22