I spent this summer working with a post-doctorate researcher in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department (EEB) who is conducting a study of febrile illness in pediatric patients in Laikipia District, Kenya.

Until last January, I had never heard the word “Ediacaran” in my life. Nor could I reliably point out to you where the country Namibia is on a map. Despite that, I spent all of June and July in Namibia as a field assistant for a geosciences graduate student, Akshay Mehra, who is studying what could be some of the first animals who inhabited the earth during the end of the Ediacaran period.

This summer, I'm back at Princeton, completing an internship at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).  One of the main goals of PPPL is to make fusion energy a reality. The mainstream fusion reactor concept is a tokamak, a donut-shaped device that uses twisted circular magnetic fields to confine its plasma so that it can be heated to fusion-relevant energies. While tokamak research is advanced, the machines have the disadvantage of being huge, expensive and immensely technologically complicated.

So this summer I'm working with Samuel Cohen, a professor who researches field reversed configuration reactors (FRCs). An FRC uses a different magnetic field setup than a tokamak, which allows it to be a much smaller and simpler device.

 

This simplicity has caused the FRC to attract significant research interest. For example, Tri Alpha Energy and Helion Energy, two private fusion companies, use FRCs as their major reactor concept.  

But FRC research is still young, especially compared with tokamak research, so there is a lot of work to be done. My research this summer involves understanding and optimizing the rotating magnetic fields in the FRC that heat its plasma to temperatures at which fusion can occur. I've only just started my project, but I'm excited for what this summer will bring. Stay tuned for updates!

 

Little did I know that at Princeton there would be a multitude of other avenues for me to express myself through fashion, even in an academic setting.

PTL. Wherever I looked, that acronym seemed to be scribbled, from chalk on the sidewalk to Facebook status updates. According to UrbanDictionary.com, "Post-Thesis Life" (or PTL for short) is “the beautiful time when a college senior is finally finished with their senior thesis and can enjoy senior spring like a normal human being.” The Princeton Senior Thesis is a yearlong academic project, usually around 100 pages, required of all Princeton students (though engineers are given the option to pursue a semester-long independent project instead).

JP (junior paper). Never have these two letters been the source of so much anxiety, stress, and worry.

Coming to Princeton, I knew I would eventually have to face independent work. As a freshman, the very idea of a thesis was terrifying to me. How could I possibly say anything of any importance to anyone in the world, especially when I could barely manage to find my way around campus?

To be honest, the idea working one-on-one with a faculty adviser on independent research was part of the reason I chose to come to Princeton over larger schools of the same caliber, where it would be more difficult (or impossible) to have that kind of opportunity. Yet, when I found the reality of independent work looming over me this year, I was beginning to wonder why I thought this was such a good idea after all.

Typically, Princeton students in the Bachelor of Arts program will write two small independent papers in their junior year. Generally, one of these papers is closely related to the independent research they will focus on for their senior thesis. (Engineering students also have a requirement for a senior thesis or independent project, but typically aren’t required to participate in junior independent work.)

When the year started, I was so scared. I needed to write a short fall JP and also choose an adviser for my spring JP and senior thesis by December 2. Who should my adviser be? What should my topic be? What question should I ask? Where do I even begin? Most of my friends had similar fears. We felt overwhelmed and unprepared and thought we could never do it.

And it has been hard. But it’s completely manageable, and I have found overwhelming support from my department and certificate representatives, potential advisers, former professors, and students in the program. And now, as the semester is nearing an end, I have seen something more important than our complaints and worries over deadlines and meetings. When my friends tell me about their work, I sense their pride in what they have accomplished. When they tell me about their topics for their senior thesis, I sense their excitement in what they’ll be doing. There’s something incredibly fulfilling about saying you have worked on something that no one else has worked on, and about having the ability to focus on what is important to you. I know that I, personally, have had a lot of fun thinking about the evolutionary basis for human moral systems.

JP. Never have two letters been the source of such inspiration, reflection, and excitement.

If you are thinking about coming to the United States for college, congratulations! The liberal arts education in the U.S. is truly world class. Yet if you are worried about whether your non-native English ability can handle the rigorous course load, you are not alone. The academic writing at Princeton calls for such high caliber research and critical thinking that it makes things especially difficult for internationals who are not used to writing papers in American style.

Fortunately, the Princeton writing seminar, a required course for first-year students, comes to the rescue. Although not designed specifically for internationals, it serves the crucial purpose as an introduction to writing well. In the writing seminar, we learned about thesis, motive, transition, outline/reverse outline and so on. We critiqued each other’s papers and learned to navigate Firestone Library to write a research paper. My writing seminar professor was everything one could ask for: She did not lower her expectation even a bit for me just because I'm international, yet she was extremely patient and provided me with helpful feedback in every stage of writing.

I should also mention the writing center located in the basement of Whitman College. From brainstorming to finding a working thesis, and from writing papers to lab reports, writing center fellows were able to assist me in numerous ways. Whether I encountered writer's block, could not articulate a confusing concept, or simply wanted someone to read over my draft, in this hour-long, one-on-one session, the fellows helped address my specific questions. The writing center is open seven days a week and accepts both online appointments and drop-ins.

Bottom line is it takes a while to get used to American academic writing, yet resources to help us abound.