Columbia three physics and one astrophysics majors are among 2021 Goldwater Scholars

Short Biographies:

Chiu Fan Bowen Lo

Chiu Fan Bowen “Leo” Lo is a third-year physics major from Hong Kong and Olathe, Kansas. His interest in physics stems from his childhood fascination for optical illusion exhibitions in science museums, and it continued to grow with his participation in the physics olympiads. Leo first conducted research In the summer after sophomore year in high school, interning at Professor Mengkun Liu’s Ultrafast & Nano-spectroscopy group, studying the optical near-field responses of 2D nano-particle arrays and creating a simulation platform for near-field optical experiments. After entering Columbia, Leo worked in Professor Dmitri Basov’s group, studying the optical responses of cuprate superconductors and thin-film transition metal dichalcogenides. He also worked with Professor Andriy Nevidomskyy at Rice University and Professor Hoi Chun Po at HKUST on topological protected nodal structure in the superconducting gap of Dirac superconductor. After graduating, Leo plans to pursue a research career exploring the rich phases in condensed matter physics using topological and geometric tools.

Andrew Sullivan

Andrew is a third-year physics major from Yonkers, New York. He first realized he was interested in pursuing science in his junior year of high school after taking physics for the first time. The summer after that school year, he had his first science research experience with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Robert DiStasio in computational chemistry which motivated him to consider science research as a career. The following summer after being admitted to Columbia, Andrew participated in a program for high school students and graduates hosted by Associate Research Scientist Zsuzsanna Márka and Adjunct Research Scientist Luca Matone of Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory that first introduced him to astrophysics research and the Columbia Experimental Gravity group. After that program, Andrew began his studies at Columbia. He performs research with Szabolcs Márka, Walter E. LeCroy Jr. Professor of Physics at Columbia, and Zsuzsanna Márka in the Columbia Experimental Gravity group. For the past two years, Andrew has worked on searches for unique astrophysical gravitational wave sources, projects proposing future gravity experiments, and the timing system of the LIGO gravitational wave observatories. Andrew hopes to obtain a Ph.D. in physics and pursue a career in research in gravitational physics.
 

Joheen Chakraborty

Joheen is a third-year studying astrophysics and computer science from Edison, New Jersey. His initial interest in science began with computers, when playing video games inspired him to learn programming. He got his first research experience during high school doing machine learning work in a CS group. However, some pivotal physics classes in high school and through Columbia’s Science Honors Program, as well as competing in Science Olympiad, convinced him to switch to the natural sciences. Not wanting to leave behind his background in computing, he decided to try working on some computational astrophysics projects in his freshman year at Columbia with Profs. Frits Paerels and David Kipping of the Department of Astronomy, on gravitational wave counterparts and periodic signal detection, respectively. The summer after sophomore year, he worked with Dr. Glenn Orton at JPL on the atmospheric physics of Jupiter. He’s since begun working on projects in the transits of gravitationally bound exoplanets, tidal disruption events, and 21-centimeter cosmology. Joheen is now frantically trying to figure out which subfield of astrophysics to settle into before his PhD. Ultimately he wants to pursue a research career in computational astrophysics.

Brian Jiang

Brian is a second-year physics major from Edison, New Jersey. He first became interested in physics and astronomy during high school via Science Olympiad and various astrophysics competitions. Brian spent his first undergraduate year at Rutgers University, where he began physics research with work related to the morphology of Type 1a Supernova with Professor John Hughes. The following summer, he participated in an REU at Cornell University in particle accelerator physics by analyzing numerical algorithms of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring with Dr. Suntao Wang and Dr. David Sagan. These experiences strengthened Brian’s interest in both astrophysics and high-energy particle physics. Brian then transferred to Columbia University to apply his programming and analytical skills in computational physics research. Currently, he is analyzing neutrino phenomenology via data from the MiniBooNE experiment at Nevis Labs under Professor Georgia Karagiorgi and is also contributing to galaxy simulations under Professor Jeremiah Ostriker and Zhaoming Gan. Brian looks forward to combining his interests in programming, astrophysics, and particle physics to pursue a PhD and research cosmology.