Friday April 29, 2011

Good morning...Today is a special day, my birthday (yay me). So I did what any good slacker would do, I went to class. Of course this week in NAP (Nucear Astroparticle Physics for those who have not been paying attention) was not typical, at least not for me. We had an experimental nuclear physicist lecturing...keyword: experimental. I like hearing about a good theory now and again, but nothing is as exciting as getting your hands dirty and bringing theory to life (or death). So now in this one class we have had two researchers from across Europe come and talk to us...not bad Uppsala, not bad. Speaking of experiments, I finished my lab report as well. I was doing quality analysis on space probes. That's right, first year student working on space design. IT only took the better part of 6 months, but 65 thousand data points, about a hundred graphs, and hours of error analysis later...it is done (well, almost...stil have to make the presentation :).

Also, lucky us had a guest presenter from GHOSTS yesterday.I am not going to say too much about it because I want to leave just enough suspense so you will visit their site and learn something about all the different places in the universe you can look. Link --> :). You should definitely give that a view as it is a large project that will take time and be round for many years to come.

Oh well, enough talk, time for work...and Happy Valborg!! (look it up...another reason to be in Uppsala)

FAIR by GSI

I had a pretty good week in NAP (Nuclear Astroparticle Physics). We had a guest lecturer from the GSI institute in Germany. He gave us two lectures and a seminar about his work in nuclear physics as well as the new facility being developed at the GSI in Germany. Oh his name is Karlheinz Langanke. He spoke in depth about the FAIR project. FAIR stands for Factility for Antiproton and Ion Research (http://www.gsi.de/fair/overview/research/nuclear-structure_e.html). It was quite enjoyable even if the jokes needed some help (we are physicists, not comedians). It gave me the opportunity to think about particle physics and how certain elements were made in our universe. Closer to my goal of understanding the how of the universe. As for the why, leave that to the philosophers.


Now for next week, classes are for the most part dismissed but the work doesn't end there. Going to spend it working on papers and homework. :)

physics of the nuclear astroparticle variety

three questions, 11 answers, and three hours...fun, right? Well it wasn't too bad. I only messed up one question because I didn't have the book (which has since been remedied). It was more of a knowledge base test to see where everyone in the class stands. There were two different varieties: one for astro students and the other for nuclear students. I am an astro student so I had nuclear questions. The up side is that the test has already been returned to me so that I can correct my errors and get some of the points I lost back. It is more important to have the knowledge than to pass the test with high marks (that's how I see it anyway). --> This is important. Anyway, other than this test I had a seminar on dwarf galaxies in galaxy physics which went extremely well. Now to finish a paper for stellar physics and prepare for more. Yay!

Welcome

Hell and welcome. My name is Omid, if you haven't gathered that information already, and I am a master's student at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. If you are not sure where that is, click here. The university is the oldest in Scandanavia, founded in 1477. It is ranked in the top 100 universities in the world for physics. The Physics department is large, with many divisions. I am following the astronomy and space physics profile.

A little bit about myself. I am originally Iranian though I grew up in Jackson, MS, USA. From there I attended Mississippi State University where I received my bachelor's degree in Physics in 2004. I spent some years working in the construction industry and then came to Uppsala to continue my course work.

The purpose of this blog is to give prospective students and others that are interested a small insight into life as a master's student in the physics department. More specifically, it will entail my experiences in the department and in Uppsala.

I would like to begin by discussing a little bit about how the program is structured. Unlike more master's programs that I am aware of, the program here is structured very independently. A master's student is not led by the hand and told this is what you need to do. You are released into a world of physicist's and you are expected not just to survive, but to succeed. For those that like independent study and relish in the chance to make your path, this is a great university. You are not expected to even follow the same profile while you are here. If for some reason, you find that you fit better in a different set of courses, you are free to follow a different profile (Ok, so maybe I didn't quite explain profiles clearly, scroll down a bit and they will be better explained).

The profiles in the Physics department are just paths for each specialization. As I mentioned before, I am following the astronomy and space physics profile, but other ones include geophysics, material physics, theoretical physics just to name a few.

If you would like to see a video of me talking about the program and a bit about life in Sweden, click here.

So now you know about the program, where we are, and what we do, let's get started...