Physics Illinois junior Sean McLaughlin has been awarded a prestigious Barry M. Goldwater scholarship for the 2014/15 academic year for demonstrating academic promise and strong potential as a future scientist. McLaughlin, a native of Hickory Hills, IL, with strong interests in computation, astronomy, and physics, aspires to work in academia teaching and conducting research at the intersection of these fields. He is currently considering several advanced degree programs toward that aim.
McLaughlin’s research and teaching experiences as an undergraduate have helped to shape his career goals. He has worked under astronomy professor Robert Brunner since fall 2012 on developing a simple, automated search method for incidences of strong gravitational lensing in telescope data. Identifying gravitational lenses is critical to the study of dark matter and the early universe; If successful, this computational tool would find gravitational lenses by sifting through the huge datasets collected by digital telescopes like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey or the Dark Energy Survey.
“Telling a computer to identify an arc shape in billions of images is not computationally efficient,” explains McLaughlin. “There are successful methods that use this technique, but they’re complicated and slow. We’re trying a technique wherein we calculate the radius we expect the lensed image to be and looking to see if there are any interesting objects near that radius. The odds that a misleading object will fall near that radius is small, but a lensed image has to be there. We can efficiently eliminate a lot of false positives this way. “
McLaughlin is also a recipient of a 2014 Summer Undergraduate Research Grant through the U. of I. Office of Undergraduate Research, which will support his research in gravitational lensing with Brunner:
“I am excited to work with Dr. Brunner full time this summer. The project turned out to be more complicated than we thought it would, and I am excited to give it my full attention. We are thinking about trying some new things, like computational modelling, to get at the answers we need,” adds McLaughlin.
McLaughlin’s computer skills benefited from another research opportunity: Last summer, McLaughlin received a 2013 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, CO. There, he worked on a large project programming a new measurement interface that will be used in spintronics experiments.
“I place a lot of value on fully mastering the techniques used in the lab. It's important to know the physics of what you're studying, but it's also just as important to have a good understanding of the techniques you're using to get there. For me, it’s just as important to be a good programmer as a good physicist,” he shares.
McLaughlin’s experiences as a TA in the Department of Physics have also been rewarding on a personal level: “I like teaching people who want to listen. A student of mine recently reached out to me to thank me for helping her pass her exam. That was the same day I found out about the Goldwater, and it meant just as much to me.
McLaughlin encourages other undergraduates in the sciences to seek out opportunities to gain research experience: “Undergraduate research is super important, especially in physics. In the classroom, we are taught what we need to know to understand the cutting edge in physics. In the lab, though, you learn how to actually get the work done. It’s where you learn the skills and make the intellectual connections that will open up career possibilities.”
McLaughlin spent the fall 2013 semester studying at University College London.
McLaughlin has been recognized many times for his academic achievements. He is a James Scholar and serves as a member of the Honors Student Council. He was selected for the 2011 Pilchard Scholarship for outstanding freshmen, the Department of Physics 2013 Richard K. Cook Scholarship, and received recognition for excellence in undergraduate engineering from the Chicago Engineering Council. He is an active member of the Physics Society, has worked as a tutor for Netmath, and has played euphonium in the U. of I. Concert Band. He recently delivered a talk on his ongoing research in gravitational lensing at the 7th Annual University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Undergraduate Research Symposium, held April 17 at the Illini Union.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Barry M. Goldwater, who served 30 years in the U.S. Senate. The program provides a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to sophomores and juniors from the United States who intend to pursue doctorates in these fields.
McLaughlin is one of three from the University of Illinois and one of 283 nationwide to be named a Goldwater Scholar for 2014-15. He was selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,166 mathematics, science and engineering students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities across the US. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. The one- and two-year scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.