"Senior Thesis Information & Recent Theses

Students preparing senior theses must enroll in PHYS1990 for the semester in which they will complete their thesis.  Students who wish to obtain credit for thesis related research work in the fall should enroll in PHYS1980 (an override code from the advisor will be needed).

Senior theses are due to be handed into the Department Honors Coordinator and the Senior Thesis Advisor 10 days before the beginning of reading period in a student’s final semester.  The final version of a student’s thesis is due no later than midnight on the last day of reading period.  Students wishing to be considered for honors must give a Senior thesis presentation no later than the last day of reading period.  These presentations typically last a half hour comprised of a 20-minute talk and 10-minute question and discussion period.  

Student Research Topic Advisor
2021    
Bawabe, Sarah "A Graph Theoretic Window into the Large Scale Structure of the Universe" Stephon Alexander
Bechtold, Stellan "Mapping Dark Matter Distributions of Low Redshift Galaxy Clusters" Ian Dell'Antonio
Belman-Wells, Livia "Subwavelength dielectric resonators via a single etching fabrication step" Leo Li
Byun, Ye Won "Unsupervised and Semi-Supervised Learning Approaches to Predicting Exoplanet Host Stars" Jonathan Pober
Carmichael, Deven "Effects of Ordinary Viscosity on the Topological Classification of the Shallow Water Equations" Brad Marston
Edens, Quentin "Generating and Comparing Dark Matter Distributions in Regular and Merging Galaxy Clusters" Ian Dell'Antonio
Jennis, Aaron "Mapping Dark Matter Distributions in High Extinction Galaxy Clusters" Ian Dell'Antonio
Majumder, Shweta "Monitoring Anxiety of Radiation Oncology Patients through Wearable Sensors"

Marissa Gray and

Reshma Munbodh 

Marglous, Jacob "In the Driver's Seat: Counterdiabatic Driving to Optimize Bacterial Infection and Cancer Treatments"

Daniel Weinreich and

James Valles

McGraw, Samantha "Using a Delay Spectrum Analysis to Compare Simulations and Data in MWA Phase 2" Jonathan Pober
Oaks-Leaf, Sam "The Dominance of Geodesic Paths and Their Application in a 2D Supercooled Liquid" Richard Stratt
Rugg, Natalie "The Visual Identification of Jellyfish Galaxies in Galaxy Clusters" Ian Dell'Antonio
Rutherford, Grant "Two Applications of Plasma Physics Modeling for Controlled Fusion Research" Jonathan Pober
Solt, Jasper "Machine Learning Analysis of the Epoch of Reionization" Jonathan Pober
Turner, Christopher "Gravikinesis of Paramecium Caudatum in Constraining Tubes" James Valles
Voelker, Justin "Calibration of BPW34 FS PIN Diodes for Neutron Fluence Monitoring" Ulrich Heintz
White, Angelina "Inelastic Cross Sections of Metastable Xenon Isotope Production" Richard Gaitskell
Zheng, Joy "Quantum Monte Carlo Studies of an Anisotropic 2D Superconductor-Insulator-Transition" James Valles
Zuckerman, Anna "Evaluating the Viability of Low-Energy Multi-scattered Neutron Calibrations for LZ" Richard Gaitskell
Zuckerman, Leah "Searching for Strong Gravitational Lensing in DECam Cluster Images" Ian Dell'Antonio
Student Research Topic Advisor
2020    
Chalfin, Harry S. "The AdS/CFT Correspondence: Entanglement Entropy & Holography" Antal Jevicki
Choi, Jungho "Theory of Topological Heat Transport" Dmitri Feldman
Conroy, Nicholas "Celestial Cartography: Mapping the Distribution of Dark Matter in Galaxy Clusters with Contrasting Mass Measurements" Ian Dell'Antonio
Hall, Galen P. "Implications of mixed layer depth for climate sensitivity in general circulation climate models" Baylor Fox-Kemper
Hannon, Gabriel I. “Exploring the Multiplets: Some Physics Hiding within 4D, N=2 Supersymmetric Transformation Laws” Jim Gates
Harith, Kaushik Srinivasan "Variations in the $\Lambda$CDM parameters at different CMB $\ell$ scales" Stephon Alexander
Hawkins, Claire C. "Mapping Weak Gravitational Lensing Signals from Low-Redshift Galaxy Clusters to Compare Dark Matter and X-Ray Gas Substructures" Ian Dell'Antonio
Hess, Jonathan M. "Quantum Spin Liquids and AC Susceptibility" Kemp Plumb/Sean Ling
Insley, Benjamin A. "Design and Simulation of Nasopharynx Applicator Shielding for Potential Use in Brachytherapy" Oludurotimi Adetunji
Ishimaru, Matthew A. "On the stability of eight-electron bubbles in liquid helium" Humphrey Maris
Jackson, Jacob J. "Extending Urban Scaling Theory Between and Within Cities: Analyses of Inter-City Networks and Kinetic Exchange Modeling of Local Income Inequality" Jim Valles
Kliegman, Ross P. “Can Primordial Black Holes and WIMPs coexist?” Savvas Koushiappas
Lawson, Alexander "Stochastic Modeling of Topological Geophysical Waves" Brad Marston
Mera Evans, Tyco B. “Introducing gravitational wave astronomy into the undergraduate classroom through the creation of a demonstration device” Prof. Rob Coyne, URI
Minot, Andrea D. "Weak Gravitational Lensing in Galaxy Clusters and their X-ray Properties" Ian Dell'Antonio
Palacios, Jorge A. "Unearthing astro-almanacs / unknowing epistemocratic utopia" Stephon Alexander
Purdom, Halle E. "Testing the consistency of different simulations of reionization" Jonathan Pober
Royal, Ellen C. "Dimensional crossover in Ag films evaporated onto angled nanopore array substrates" Jim Valles
Runkel, Sara "Atmospheric Boundary Layer Dynamics and Pollutant Transport in La Paz, Bolivia: Direct Statistical Simulation of the Dry Convective Boundary Layer" Brad Marston
Saluja, Devansh "C* algebras and operator theory in algebraic formulations of quantum mechanics" Brian Cole
Seet, Ruixi "Magnetic Anisotropy in Mixed Van der Waals Materials" Kemp Plumb
Stanton, Jacob G. "Imo Kekere - Examining the Quantum Measurement Problem Through the Yoruba Philosophy of Ifa Divination" Stephon Alexander
Ton, Andrew T. "Mesoscopic Orientational Order Accompanies the Slow Dynamics of a Two-Dimensional Supercooled Liquid" Richard Stratt
Tropper, Adam "Randomness-Assisted Exponential Hierarchies in Particle Physics" Jiji Fan
Vasquez, Katie "Observations of Spectroscopic Binaries Epsilon Persei and HIP26736" Ian Dellantonio
Wolcott, Benjamin A. "Simulation of Powdered NMR Spectra Patterns" Vesna Mitrovic

Student

Research Topic

Advisor

2019

   
Belcaster, Henry B.

"The Music of TRAPPIST-1 and Other Exoplanet Systems: An investigation of orbits, sound, and music's unique ability to explain complex structure in the universe"

Professor Stephon Alexander
Brown, Ian W. "Evaporation and measurement of thin oxidized aluminum films on an AAO substrate to investigate potential coulomb effects on transport" Professor Jim Valles
Chan, Jason C. "Prototyping and Testing an Energy Saving
Multifunctional Membrane for Buildings"
Professor Derek Stein
Godfrey, Ciaran L. "Search for Trijet Resonance" Professor Greg Landsberg
Hinkle, Elise D. "Tagging Hadronically Decaying Top Quarks with Deep Neural Networks" Professor Meenakshi Narain
Holber, Jamie E. "Spin Hall Angles in Solids exhibiting a Giant Spin Hall Effect" Professor Gang Xiao
Jayaraman, Rahul "Methods for Phase Curve Analyses of Exoplanet Atmospheres" Professor Greg Tucker
Kim, Heesoo "Exfoliation and Characterization of Materials for Heterostructure Assembly" Professors Kemp Plumb & Jia Leo Li
Kocher, Charles D. "Quantum Chaos in Simple Systems" Professor Antal Jevicki
Papol, Anthony V. "The Evolution and Stability of Four-Body Stellar Systems" Professor Stephon Alexander
     
Student Research Topic Advisor
2018

 

 

Avkhadiev, Artur

“Treading Geodesic Pathways through the Configuration Space of a Linear Polymer”

Professor Stratt (Chemistry)

Butler, Jack

"Mapping Dark Matter in the Galaxy Clusters of the Northern Hemisphere"

Professor Dell'Antonio

Canaras, Zoe

"Constraining Sensitivity to the EoR Power Spectrum"

Professor Pober

Cheng, Rebecca

Studying and characterizing potential scale dependence of the sheet resistance of thin silver films

Professor Valles

Coleman, Evan

"Maximal Chaos in Black Holes"

Professor Jevicki

Dallas, Emanuel

"2D BEC"

Professor Kosterlitz

Dick, Nathaniel

"Exploring the Inhomogeneous Distribution of Matter Due to Perturbations in the Early Universe"

Professor Koushiappas

Dudak, Matthew

"Incorporating Computation in Introductory High School Physics"

Professor Targan & Professor Silva-Pimentel (Education)

Greer, Cory

“A search for dwarf candidates in wide-field surveys”

Professor Dell'Antonio 

Hartig, Kara

"Langmuir Turbulence in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer: Towards a Sub-grid Statistical Climate Process Model"

Professor Marston

Herrera, Kairy

"Investigations on Superfluid Dark Matter"

Professor Alexander

Hirsch, Alexander

"A Python Environment for Wide-angle Energy-momentum Spectroscopy Analysis

Professor Zia (Engineering)

Isik, Oliver

“Detecting John Cunningham Virus Translocations through Solid-State Nanopores”

Professor Stein

Kang, Lucas

"Adinkras From Ordered Quartets of BC4 Coxeter Group Elements and Regarding Another Gadget's 1,358,954,496 Matrix Elements."

Professor Gates

Ortega, Marlene

"Methods for the distinction of hadronically decaying boosted W±/Z bosons"

Professor Narain

Marmor, Andrew

"Dynamical Friction....black holes "

Professor Koushiappas

Miller, Michelle

"Recovering the Physics of the Epoch of Reionization using Semi-Analytic 21CMMC Code"

Professor Pober

Quigley, Keegan

"Physical Amplification of Chemical Colorimetric Sensing and a Transfer Matrix Analysis"

Professor Xu (Engineering)

Sridhar Narayanan, Adarsh

"Using Machine Learning to Variationally Optimize Fermionic Wave Functions"

Professor Rubinstein (Chemistry)

Stern, Nicholas

"Dark Matter Directionality: Effect of Nuclear Recoil Direction Relative to Applied Electric Field on Ionization Yield in the LUX Detector"

Professor Gaitskell

Storer, Dara

"Analysis of the Best-Fit Sky Model Produced Through Redundant Calibration of the MWA"

Professor Pober

Tan, Matthew

"Linearity of the Hamamatsu R11410 Photomultipler Tube in cryogenic temperatures for the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment"

Professor Gaitskell

Yaruss, Emily

"Determining Dark Matter Distribution Through Gravitational Lensing in Low-Redshift Galaxy Clusters in the Southern Hemisphere"

Professor Dell'Antonio

2017

 

 

Blunt, Sarah

"Orbits for the Impatient: A Bayesian Rejection Sampling Method for Quickly Fitting the Orbits of Long-Period Exoplanets"

Professor Dell'Antonio & E. Nielsen (SETI Institute) & Prof. Macintosh (Stanford)

Brauer, Kaley

"Force-Explicit Machine Learning Schemes and Interactive Visualization for Atomic Simulations"

Professor Marston & Professor Peterson (Engineering)

Butcher, Amy

"Laser Terahertz Emission Near-field Microscopy"

Professor Middleman

Harris, Evan

"PSF Anisotropy and Cluster Mass Estimation in Weak Gravitational Lensing"

Professor Dell'Antonio

Lynch, Connor

"Photomultiplier Tube (PMT) Testing for the LZ (LUX-ZEPLIN) Dark Matter Experiment under intense LED-light exposure and modulation"

Professor Gaitskell

Movsheva, Anna

"Anyons and Dualities in 2+1 Dimensions"

Professor Jevicki

Nelson, Jovan

"Using Jet Images and Deep Neural Networks to Identify Particles in High Luminosity"

Professor Narain

Oliver, Richard

"Force-Free Electrodynamics near the Horizon of an Extremal Kerr Black Hole"

Professor Lowe

L.J. Remillard

"Stirling coolers, their Vibrations, and Astronomy"

Professor Dell'Antonio 

Rivlis, Raz

"Monte Carlo Simulations of Liquid Crystal Decorated Nanoparticles"

Professor Pelcovits

Romines, Carl

"Weak Gravitational Lensing"

Professor Dell'Antonio

Rosenberg, Eliott

"Cooling in a Dissipative Dark Sector"

Professor Fan

Seymour, Devon

"Monte Carlo Simulations of Polonium Drift from Radon Progeny in an Electrostatic Counter"

Professor Gaitskell

Tennis, Jessica

"Thermodynamics and Kinetics of DOTA-Based Ligands"

Professor Dell'Antonio & Professor Robinson (Chemistry)

Zamora, Alvaro

"Finding Young and Hypervelocity Stars in the Outer Halo of the Galaxy" 

Professor Dell'Antonio

Previous Senior Theses