On Richard Ott and Robert Schroll

By: Karrie Sue Hawbaker, editor

Usually, in this section of The Photon, we feature an alum who is already established in a successful and interesting career. This month, I want to introduce you to two of our younger alumni who are still at the beginning of very promising professional journeys. For you undergraduates, I hope you take their words as guidance, as you look past graduation day. And for those of you who have moved beyond this youthful career phase, I hope you take a moment to remember your early years and that you are encouraged by the talent and exuberance of today's young physicists.

Richard Ott, B.S., 2003
During his undergraduate years here at Maryland, Richard Ott excelled in his class work, was active in the Society for Physics Students (SPS) and took advantage of the opportunity to do research as an undergrad. He worked with Professor Christopher Lobb's group in the Center for Superconductivity for a year and a half. During that year and a half, he spent most of his time working with graduate student Matthew Sullivan researching the YBCO (yttrium barium copper oxide) superconductor, looking closely at scaling dynamics like current voltage scaling. By the Spring of 2003, when he graduated, he had his name as an author on three papers and had received the Department's Jerry B. Marion Award, a $1000 scholarship.

In his senior year, Ott had begun applying to graduate schools: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Maryland and University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne. It's an impressive list of schools and he was accepted to them all. He took his time to consider, but admits that he had virtually decided on MIT before he even took a trip to Boston. The visit confirmed the fact that its physics department was strong in a variety of programs. So, if, during his graduate study, he decides to change fields of physics, he'll still benefit from a strong program. And, he has the opportunity to cross-enroll with some of the other universities in the area like Harvard University. He also thought Boston would be a pretty fun town and a President's Fellowship from the university, which paid his way for the first year, was an attractive offer.

Now in his second year at MIT, Ott has been working with Professor Young Lee on high-temperature superconductors, quantum magnets and correlated-electron systems. Specifically, he's working on the cobalt oxide system, which was discovered about a year before he started graduate school. Given its novelty, physicists know very little about it - a situation that has both advantages and disadvantages. The all-good news is that he finds his research group very collaborative and professionally supportive.

Ott says that, overall, he's had a rather positive experience so far. The classes are difficult but if you put your mind to it you can learn a lot. He likes the encouragement to be independent and do your own work and he appreciates the effort that MIT makes to be supportive in an academic sense as well as helpful in making ends meet.

Each university has a unique character and culture and he can definitely feel differences between Maryland and MIT. For example, he find the undergraduates extraordinarily focused compared to Maryland. What's even more obvious, though, is the undergrad to graduate change, in that the focus has shifted from classes and tests to heavy research.

Ott is currently supported by a research assistantship. But, next year, he is hoping to also gain some teaching experience with a teaching assistantship. He would like to eventually go into academia, especially since he would really like to teach. He gained his first experiences in this area during his senior year at Maryland, when he worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the Physics of Music laboratory. He really enjoyed that experience (and learned a lot about how to organize and prepare for a class) and looks forward to gaining additional experience.

Ott says he is getting used to the cold Boston weather. And, while he has enjoyed the city a bit, it's not as much as he would like, given the workload of a graduate student. But, it's his second year. He has time to enjoy Boston - as well as, I'm sure, a plethora of exciting experiences and successes.

Robert Schroll, B.S., 2003
Robert Schroll is another one of our bright Spring 2003 graduates. During his time here at Maryland, he also gained valuable academic and social experiences - and took advantage of two undergraduate research opportunities. He first spent a summer with Professor Theodore Einstein working with atomic-level steps on silicon surfaces. While he greatly enjoyed working with Dr. Einstein and valued his mentorship, the most important result of the experience was finding out that that was not an area of physics that he wished to pursue for a career. So, the next year, he worked with Professor Rajarshi Roy on computer-generated holograms. This experience was also very beneficial in that it convinced him that non-linear dynamics was an area that he wanted to study further.

Schroll's list of prospective graduate schools including the University of Chicago, the University of California, Berkley, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Washington, the University of Maryland and Princeton University. He received acceptance letters from all but Princeton, leaving him with great options. He went to several of his Maryland professors for their opinions, given his proposed area of research. After evaluating their comments and visiting the campus and the department, he decided on Chicago.

Schroll entered the University of Chicago in the Fall of 2003 with support from a very competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship that will last through his first three years. Now in his second year, he is working with Professor Wendy Zhang on a fluid dynamics problem, based on an experiment conducted by Jean-Pierre Delville and Alexis Casner, of the Université Bordeaux I in France. In this experiment, a laser beam is used to deform the interface between two fluids. As the power of the laser is changed, the deformation can change shapes rather dramatically. So far, he's enjoying tackling the problem.

Schroll also says his overall experience is going rather well. In addition to being excited about the non-linear dynamics research, he finds that the group - and the department - provides a supportive and collegial environment. He also really enjoys his class. He entered the graduate program with about 20 other students with whom he enjoys doing "fun stuff" as well as homework.

Schroll says the University of Chicago has a very different feel from Maryland. The university has a much larger graduate program than undergraduate program and that creates a different atmosphere. For example, he was a member of the large and rather well-known-about-campus marching band here at Maryland. However, it is Schroll and a few friends who are working to put together a small pep band at Chicago. He also recognizes the differences between undergraduate and graduate school. He finds life in grad school much more focused. It's more "all physics all the time."

As for the City of Chicago, he hasn't had much time to take advantage of it, with so much work to do. However, he does say that his first impression of the area was simple: cold and flat. He's getting used to the cold, but it still feels really flat.

Schroll's future isn't clear; although he's pretty sure he would like to pursue the academic route. However, he has lots of time to sort it out and the path ahead sure does look promising.

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If you have questions or comments for either Richard Ott or Robert Schroll, please contact the editor. She will be happy to pass along the message.