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This week we are highlighting Sawyer Walcott, a senior physics and astrophysics double major! 

Sawyer first gained interest in physics when he was young, watching scientists like Carl Sagan and Neil Degrasse Tyson discussing the inner-workings of the universe. He continued his interest through his schooling, including classes at community college. Going into his undergraduate career, one of the most formative experiences he had with physics was in Modern Physics with Professor Noah Finkelstein, who encouraged him to join Quantum Scholars. “I’ve stuck around for three years since, and it’s been so worthwhile for me.” 

His favorite aspects of Quantum Scholars have been the NIST tour where he learned about atomic clocks and experimental work that goes on there, as well as speakers from the industry side. He also appreciated the options related to industry that the program exposed him to for postgraduation. 

The summer after his sophomore year, he joined the CU Wakefield Acceleration and Radiation Generation (WARG) group focusing on modeling plasma ionization. He primarily worked on the development of the plasma lens, which is a thin slice out of the accelerator. This consisted of rigorous coding and simulation work and the development of a new coding package, which predicted results with added complexity to the system. 

Sawyer eventually moved on to join LASP and worked in solar physics. He worked in two projects associated with data analysis from the Parker Solar Probe: he first analyzed ion-acoustic waves, and he more recently worked on looking at Langmuir waves. This was especially interesting working alongside the Parker probe’s longer time intervals of data, meaning that his group was able to analyze the time evolution of Langmuir waves. He really appreciated working alongside data analysis and recognizing patterns within the data that came from the Solar Probe. This work culminated in an honors thesis, which he defended in March. 

After graduating, he is entering graduate school at UT Dallas this fall! He would love to continue education within postdoctoral work and ultimately be a professor or work in a national lab, most likely alongside solar physics. He would also love to continue travelling and connect with the global scientific community. 

Sawyer studied abroad in Melbourne, Australia at Monash University. He was able to enjoy the warm beaches and great food there while studying physics. He “cannot recommend enough” studying abroad in college! 

Outside of physics, Sawyer enjoys video games and working through his backlog on Steam. He also also enjoys playing tennis, the CU rec center roof being a favorite spot. He’s highly involved in many student organizations, including SPS, COSMOS, astronomy club, brawl stars club, and PISEC. He also enjoys playing the keyboard and biking.