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Name: Matthew Ishimaru

Concentration: Mathematical Physics

 

What was your favorite part about being a student at Brown?

I love the relationships that I've built with students and professors. I think my favorite thing has been catching up with someone I haven't seen in a while on the green or in the hallway between classes. There are so many interesting and brilliant people to learn from that every day and every conversation always felt special.

What was your favorite part about being a student in the Brown Physics Department?

Weekly meetings with my thesis advisor Professor Humphrey Maris. I've worked with him for two years and he's always been a great mentor and source of scientific inspiration.

What was the most surprising part about your research experience?

Before Brown, I always imagined research as a very methodical, dry pursuit. I've been most surprised by the immense creativity involved in physics research. You have to be able to make leaps of understanding with limited information. That requires quite a bit of imagination. 

Do you have any advice for new physics students?

Use the open curriculum to try things that are new and a little out there. You never know what new class might resonate in unforeseen ways. Some of my favorite moments at Brown have come from unexpected consonance between areas that seemed very different. I remember taking experiments in modern physics at the same time as an MCM filmmaking class. I was fascinated by our lab studying the Zeeman effect, which produced these great interference patterns that arose from energy level splitting within an atom. I made a film around the footage that we recorded in the lab, and I ended up making more films exploring physics concepts like phase changes and black body radiation. Learning and growing outside my concentration showed me that I would take the lessons I learned through physics far beyond the classroom.

What are you planning/looking forward to doing after you graduate?

I have no plans at the moment. Definitely contact me if you have any leads on a job!

What was your favorite Physics course and why?

Tough question. I would say either Quantum 1 with Professor Feldman or Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics with Professor Mitrovic. I took these courses at the same time my junior fall, and they have really shaped the way that I think about physics and about the world.

I loved those classes because they are both, in a sense, about everything, but they use very different tools to describe the universe. Quantum mechanics looks at the most individual and granular level, while Statistical Mechanics looks at large systems as a whole. They are two wholly distinct but interconnected ways of describing the world. Learning both of these subjects at the same time helped me appreciate the way physics can help us shift perspectives and see the world in new and exciting ways.

Favorite memory at Brown?

Staying up all night to publish issues of the College Hill Independent and going to Louis' for pancakes afterwards with the other editors. And winning rowing races on the Seekonk.

Read more Class of 2020 Student Spotlights