"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 |
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 |
Professor Gaitskell |
|
Storer, Dara |
"Analysis of the Best-Fit Sky Model Produced Through Redundant Calibration of the MWA" |
Professor Pober |
Tan, Matthew |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |