Physics Spring 19 Newsletter

Faculty Spotlight —The Language Of The Universe— cont. "What I learned from traveling was that people are basically the same wherever you go," Haley said. "Eventually I went to Eu- rope, and learned that we're all just humans. We're all after the same things in the end." Haley has not only worked at CERN, which is the most fa- mous physics lab in the world right now. He has also seen his work appear on the popular sit- com The Big Bang Theory. "One of the analyses I was work- ing at Fermilab showed up on Sheldon's whiteboard. It's kind of nerdy, but it was pretty cool. That's when you know you've made it," he joked. It was while he was in Switzer- land that Haley received a job offer from Oklahoma State Uni- versity's Department of Physics, where he has enjoyed working for the past six years, being awarded the Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence in 2018. "I was looking for a faculty posi- tion, and I was lucky enough to land a job here," Haley said. "It was very exciting to get a post where half of the job is research and the other half is teaching, and I love to do both. I really love interacting with the stu- dents, and the research side is incredibly intellectually challeng- ing as well." But Haley is quick to point out that physics can be a tricky sub- ject. "Classical physicists may be do- ing the work and working the machines in the labs, and there are groups that are in theoretical physics, who don't do experi- ments per se, but conceptualize and figure out problems, either in writing or computer-generated simulations," he said. And then there is Haley's own experi- mental high-energy physics, which is a unique combination of the two. "The labs can't be built in your base- ment or in class- rooms, so you go to the labs," said Ha- ley. "I still do my research at CERN. In fact, I was just Skyping with a student who is over there now. And we have some of our senior grad students and post-doc researchers there full-time." That is one of the great strengths of OSU's program, in Haley's opinion. "Being at OSU, the campus, the weather, sports, community and atmosphere is nice, but the ben- eficial things for students is get- ting undergraduates involved in research," he said. "You can learn the book and understand the concepts, but if you want to get a job in physics, practical ex- perience is the key." Haley regularly urges his stu- dents to focus on understanding why they got the right answer, rather than how. "From a few fundamental con- cepts, we can basically figure out the building blocks of the uni- verse, as physics just builds up- on itself," he said. "Math is the language of the universe. That's how the world works, and its in- ner workings can be broken down and expressed in math. You have to have a passion for math and finding out how every- thing works. If you spend your early years just memorizing equations, then you're going to get burned out fairly quickly." What is the most valuable piece of advice he can give to incoming students? "Do what you love," Haley an- swered simply. "If you're not passionate about what you're doing, and you're just doing it for a paycheck, you won't be ful- filled. Figure out what you're passionate about and then follow it." Spring 2019 │ 4 OSU Physics Newsletter Haley with Grad student, Joshua Stewart Backscattering observations— cont. From a plane, these reflectors light up and darken, as the plane’s shadow passes by them. Finally, there is the much harder to see “opposition” effect. As the plane’s shadow crosses a field of wheat or corn, the shad- ow will be surrounded by light brighter than further away. The reason for this is that the plants cover their own shadow close to the plane’s shadow. Further away from the shadow, the plant shadows become visible and darken the general background. This is the same effect that as- tronaut, Buzz Aldrin, captured in a picture of his shadow on the moon. When you plan to fly into Stillwa- ter, take the late afternoon flight, and sit by a window on the right hand side. Physics Pro- fessor Emeritus, Bruce J. Acker- son, has a paper accepted by The Physics Teacher , “Backscattering Observations from an Airplane,” describing these effects.