Recent Senior Theses

2025

Catherine Chu
Controlling Quantum Dynamics with Artificial Intelligence
Advised by Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Bo Farnell
Effects of Coulomb Collisions on the Structures of Fast Magnetosonic Shocks
Advised by Yi-Hsin Liu

Shreya Gandhi
Pedersen by Proxy: Neutral Wind Drivers of the Magnetosphere
Advised by Kristina Lynch

Josh Lee
Measuring the modulation envelope of a Pound-Drever-Hall feedback loop
Advised by Alexander Rimberg

Ricardo Mendez
Characterizing the circumgalactic medium around active galactic nuclei at redshift z~2-3
Advised by Ryan Hickox

Annabelle Niblett
Hot Jupiter Atmospheres Through Time
Advised by Elisabeth Newton

Arnav Singh
Mapping the Open-Closed Boundary: A Machine-Learning Approach to Solar-Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling
Advised by Robyn Millan

Dina Stein
Classical Motion of Bounded Orbits in Two-Body Problems
Advised by Rufus Boyack

Lauren Zanarini
Investigating Broadband Kinetic Alfvén Waves as a Driver of Radiation Belt Energetic Electron Loss to Earth's Atmosphere
Advised by Robyn Millan

2024

Ora Cullen
Senior Thesis: Gravity-Induced Quantum Entanglement via Higher Order Inverted Oscillator Potential
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Stephanie Damish
Senior Thesis: Detailed Modeling of Secondary Neutral Helium in the Heliosphere
Advisor: Hans Mueller

Hadiye Nisa Kuvvet
Senior Thesis: Noise Reduction in Quantum Systems Through a Kalman Filter
Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Declan O'Scannlain
Senior Thesis: Numerical Investigation of the Energy Spectrum in Hooke's Atom
Advisor: Rufus Boyack

Rujuta Purohit
Senior Thesis: AGNs and IMBH in Local Dwarf Galaxies
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Sophia Rubens
Senior Thesis: The Jet Mechanism of Gravitationally Lensed Blazar PKS 1830-211
Advisor: John Thorstensen

Kendall Sippy
Senior Thesis: Impacts of AGN Radiation on Planetary Atmospheres
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Allan Wang
Senior Thesis: Three-Body Orbits in General Relativity
Advisor: Robert Caldwell

2023

Nathaniel Alden
Senior Thesis: Anomalies in the decay rates if B-mesons and strong gravity
Advisor: Roberto Onofrio

Wynter Alford
Senior Thesis: Analysis of dipolar decoupling sequences using average Hamiltonian theory and Floquet theory
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Chase Alarado-Anderson
Senior Thesis: The Stress of Love: Tidal Effects & Orbital Parameters on M Dwarf Planet Habitability
Advisor: Elisabeth Newton and John Thorstensen

Abigail Burrows
Senior Thesis: Eddington ratio distributions in the low-redshift AGN population
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Jack Duranceau
Senior Thesis: Discovery and Characterization of Exoplanetary System TOI3353
Advisor: Elisabeth Newton and Ryan Hickox

Matthew Goodbred
Senior Thesis: First Principles Theory of the Reconnection Rate in Relativistic Pair Plasmas
Advisor: Yi-Hsin Liu

Nathalie Korhonen Cuestas
Senior Thesis: Assessing the accuracy of measures of shape on quassar broad features
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Grace Kwon
Senior Thesis: Interpretation of Plasma Signatures from the CREX-2 Sounding Rocket Mission
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Cassidy Nicks
Senior Thesis: Mechanical Quantum Analog of Black Holes that Emit Hawking Radiations
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

2022

Shadi Ali Ahmad
Senior Thesis: Relative Subsystems and Entanglement in Gauge Theory
Advisor: Alexander R.H. Smith

Christopher Candelora
Senior Thesis: Characterization of the Charge Carriers in Graphene Devices
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Owen Eskandari
Senior Thesis: Hamiltonian Engineering of Dipolar Coupled Spin Systems Using Reinforcement Learning
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Clara Goldberger
Senior Thesis: A New Method of Estimating Density Profiles of Auroral Roars and Observation of Presence of a Lower Density Gap
Advisor: James LaBelle

Paola Karapataki
Senior Thesis: Curvature Effects on Bosonic Dark Matter Mixing around Compact Objects
Advisor: Devin Walker

Edward McManus
Senior Thesis: Over the Picket Fence: A Simulated Analysis of STEVE Picket Fence Drivers
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Zehua Song
Senior Thesis: The Sensitivity of Space-based Gravitational-Wave Detectors to The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
Advisor: Robert Caldwell

Ben Squarer
Senior Thesis: Numerical Model for Computing the Reactivities of Kappa-Distributed Nuclear Plasmas
Advisor: Roberto Onofrio

Ian Siehl
Senior Thesis: Information theory and exoplanetary atmospheres: A new way to detect life
Advisor: Marcelo Gleiser

Timothy Strang
Senior Thesis: Neural Nets for Hartree-Fock
Advisor: James Whitfield

2021

Brian Drisdelle
Senior Thesis: Wave Packets and Superluminality in Neutrino Time-of-Flight Measurements
Advisor: Roberto Onofrio

Will Kaufman
Senior Thesis: Using Reinforcement Learning for Quantum Control in Magnetic Resonance
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Jack Parker
Senior Thesis: Uncovering Hidden AGN: A Search for Central Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Eashwar Sivarajan
Senior Thesis: On the Detection of the Oscillatory Unruh Effect
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Claire Trop
Senior Thesis: Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Tracked through Doppler shifted AM Radio Transmissions
Advisor: James LaBelle

2020

Relating Flows and Currents in Auroral Arcs
Joshua Gutow
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

A Luminosity Function for Field Ultra-diffuse Galaxies
Joshua Perlmutter
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

An Analysis of Optical Polarization Angle Variations in Blazar Jets
Tara Sweeney
Advisor: Jedidah Isler

Modeling Astrospheres of Cool Main-sequence Stars According to Observable Stellar Parameters
Gregory Mark Szypko
Advisor: Hans Mueller

 

2018

Adam Burnett
Senior Thesis: Testing Theories of Aural Radio Emissions With Direction-of-Arrival Measurements
Advisor: James LaBelle

Krishan Canzius
Senior Thesis: Entanglement Metrcis in Quantum Spin Chains
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Emily Golitzin
Senior Thesis: Follow-up on a Swift/BAT Detected Seyfert II: Gas Ionization, Kinematics and the Spectral Energy Distribution of SWIFT J0446.4 + 1828
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Raphael Hviding
Senior Thesis: Understanding the Galactic Scale Effect of AGN with Fabry-Perot Spectroscopy from SALT
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Alana Juric
Senior Thesis: Studying the Space Weather of Exoplanets in Binary Star Systems
Advisor: Hans Mueller

Chenguant Li
Senior Thesis: Memory Reactivation in Neural Networks
Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Katherine Mentzer
Senior Thesis: Extracting Density-Density Correlations From Quantum Degenerate Gases
Advisor: Kevin Wright

Saba Nejad
Senior Thesis: Does Gravity Enforce Macrorealism
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Andrew Sun
Senior Thesis: Time-Dependent Simulation of Neutral Helium in the Heliosphere
Advisor: Hans Mueller

Douglas Tallmadge
Senior Thesis: Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion as an Undergraduate Laboratory
Advisor: Robyn Millan

William Tremml
Senior Thesis: Methods of Approximating Divergence-Free Vector Fields for Ionospheric Data
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Kent Ueno
Senior Thesis: Entanglement Spectra of Engineered NMR Spin Hamiltonians
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Erik Weis
Senior Thesis: Benchmarking Quantum Computers Using Electronic Structure Algorithms
Advisor: James Whitfield

Anne Woronecki
Senior Thesis: Optical Trapping and Transportation of an Ultracold Cloud Using a Focus Tunable Lens
Advisor: Kevin Wright

2017

Samuel Greydanus
Senior Thesis: Approximating Matrix Product States with Machine Learning
Advisor: James Whitfield

Margaret Lane
Senior Thesis: X-Ray Spectral Modeling of Obscured AGN with Torus Models and Comparison to Mid-IR Emission
Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Jack Neustadt​
Senior Thesis: Optical Observations of Galactic Supernova Remnants
Advisor: Robert Fesen

2016

Lucas Bezerra​
Senior Thesis: Fast Wavefront Characterization of Optical Traps for Quantum Gases
Advisor: Kevin Wright

Pawan Dhakal​
Senior Thesis: High Precision Helium Spectroscopy and Quantum Gravity Effects
Advisor: Roberto Onofrio

Oscar Friedman​
Senior Thesis: Time Evolution of the Wigner Flow Function
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Muhammad Kiani​
Senior Thesis: Fabrication and Characterization of Graphene Devices
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Luis Martinez​
Senior Thesis: Bubbles in My Scalar Field Soup: A Study on Oscillons in Cosmology
Advisor: Mercelo Gleiser

Jonathan Vandermause​
Senior Thesis: Characterization and Control of Nuclear Spin Systems
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Kathryn Waychoff​
Senior Thesis: Zonal Wind Variability of the Jovian Planets
Advisor: Robyn Millan

2015

William Athol
Senior Thesis: Design and Validation of a Zero Field and Low Field EDMR System
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Matthew Digman
Senior Thesis: Gravitational Anomaly in Anistropic Spacetimes
Advisor: Robert Caldwell

Nina Maksimova
Senior Thesis: Testing Alternatives to the Standard Cosmological Model using the Cosmic Microwave Background
Advisor: Robert Caldwell

2014

Laurel Anderson
Senior Thesis: Experimental Control of Spin Chain Dynamics
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Todd Anderson
Senior Thesis: Orbital Dynamics Model of a CubeSat Swarm Under Aerodynamic Torque in LEO
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Spencer Diamond
Senior Thesis: Plasma Etch Characterization for Use in Cavity Optomechancis Experiment
Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Peter Horak
Senior Thesis: Attitude Estimation for Rocket-Borne Sensorcraft
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Sarah Pasternak
Senior Thesis: Design and Early Verification of an Electrically Detected Magnetic Resonance (EDMR) System
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Nathan Utterback
Senior Thesis: Kinematic Modeling and Analysis of the Galactic Supernova Remnant 3C58 (G130.7 + 3.1)
Advisor: Robert Fesen

2013

Benjamin Katz
Senior Thesis: Special-Relativistic Effects of a Microscale Oscillator on a Macroscopic Quantum State
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Alexander Meill
Senior Thesis: Implementing Measurement-Based Quantum Computing in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

2012

Michael Chilcote
Senior Thesis: Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Ionospheric Sounding Using AM Radio
Advisor: James LaBelle

Aryeh Drager
Senior Thesis: Using Multimedia Pre-Lecture Assignments to Improve the Introductory Physics Experience
Advisor: Robyn Millan

Emily DeBaun
Senior Thesis: Nonlinear Dynamics of a Biological Cell in a Uniform Electric Field
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Nicholas Knezek
Senior Thesis: An Analysis of Energetic Oxygen Interaction with Europe in the Jovian Magnetosphere
Advisor: Robyn Millan

Amanda Slagle
Senior Thesis: Vector Field Mapping and Analysis Using Finite Sensor Swarms
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

2011

Dhrubo Jyoti
Senior Thesis: Numerical Explorations of Dipolarly-Coupled Chaotic Quantum Spin Systems
Advisor: Lorenza Viola

John Roland
Senior Thesis: Fabrication of Nano-Mechanical Resonators for the Study of the Quantum to Classical Transition
Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Julianna Scheiman
Senior Thesis: The Feasibility of Using POES Satellite Data and Ground-Based Riometer Data to Examine Relativistic Electron Events
Advisor: Robyn Millan

2010

Ian Boneysteele
Senior Thesis: Delta Pion Channels
Advisor: Timothy Smith

Laura DeLorenzo
Senior Thesis: The Non-Linear Dynamics of a DC Voltage Biased Microwave Cavity With An Embedded Josephson Junction
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Ian Hayes
Senior Thesis: Microwave Resonators for the Study Of the Quantum-To-Classical Transition
Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Umair Siddiqui
Senior Thesis: Design, Calibration and Use of a Collimated Electron Source for Plasma Sheath Studies
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

2009

Evan W. Brand
Senior Thesis: Dynamics of an Oscillating Classical Heisenberg Spin Chain
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Benjamin Chapman
Senior Thesis: Nonlinear Effects in Oscillator Chains
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Matthew Schenker
Senior Thesis: VLBI Mapping of H2O Megamasers in MRK 1419
Advisor: John Thorstensen

Wendell Smith
Senior Thesis: The Entangled Twin Paradox
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Steven J. Weber
Senior Thesis: Radio Frequency Quantum Point Contacts With On-Chip Inductors
Advisor: Alex Rimberg

2008

Phillip Bracikowski
Senior Thesis: Study of Mesospheric Dust
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Alexander Crew
Senior Thesis: Data Analysis of Magnetic Fields from the ROPA Sounding Rocket
Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Parker Fagrelius
Senior Thesis: Understanding Quantum Mechanics: Entangling our Reality
Advisor: Marcelo Gleiser

Brendan Huang
Senior Thesis: Investigation of Microscopic Photon and Phonon Non-Demolition Schemes
Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Leon Maurer
Senior Thesis: Low Temperature Coulomb Blockade
Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Bennet Meyers
Senior Thesis: Bremsstrahlung X-Rays Produced in Lightning Stroke Events
Advisor: Robyn Millan

David Strauss
Senior Thesis: VLF Propagation Study at 24kHz
Advisor: James Labelle

Karl Yando
Senior Thesis: Monte Carlo Simulation of the NOAH POES Particle Detector Module and Analysis of Relativistic Electron Fluxes
Advisor: Robyn Millan

Jordan Zastrow
Senior Thesis: An Optical Study of the Circumstellar Medium in Cassiopeia A
Advisor: Robert Fesen