2021 Physics REU Student Cohort

In 2021, 23 students participated in the UW Bothell Physics REU Program. Some students were on campus, and others participated remotely. The 2021 UW Bothell Physics REU Program was supported by NSF REU award #2050928 with additional funding from NSF, the UW Bothell Physical Sciences Division, the UW Research Royalty Fund, and the Washington NASA Space Grant.

Below you will find information about the talented students who worked with us during summer 2021. Students listed in alphabetical order by last name.


Adrienne Beggs

Berea College

Mentor: Dr. Eric Salathé

Research project: Computational Modeling: Atmospheric Physics and Climate Change


Mikel Charles

UW Bothell

Mentor: Dr. Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo

Research project: Finding Extremely High-Velocity Outflows in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 Quasars


Cora DeFrancesco

University of Oklahoma, Astrophysics and Math

Mentor: Dr. Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo

Research project: Finding Extremely High-Velocity Outflows in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 Quasars


Andrew Evans

Sonoma State University, Physics and Math

Mentor: Dr. Luisa T. Buchman

Research project: Higher Order Boundary Conditions to Improve Gravitational Waveforms from Binary Black Hole Simulations


Beth Gallatin

South Puget Sound Community College

Mentor: Dr. Amy Robertson

Research project: Sensemaking in circuit analysis: Identifying students’ conceptual resources in a small group environment


Wendy Garcia Naranjo

UW Bothell, Physics

Mentor: Dr. Paola Rodrí­guez Hidalgo

Research project: Finding Extremely High-Velocity Outflows in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 Quasars


Kyle Gersbach

UW Bothell, Physics and Computer Science Software Engineering

Mentor: Dr. Joey Shapiro Key

Research project: Improving LISA’s Galactic Binary Analysis Software with Parallelization


Justin Heckt

UW Bothell

Mentor: Dr. Subramanian Ramachandran

Research project: Preliminary Experiments Involving Thermal Evaporation of Bi2Te3 and Seebeck Coefficient Measurements


Nathnael Kahassai

University of North Carolina, Physics

Mentor: Dr. Paola Rodrí­guez Hidalgo

Research project: Finding Extremely High-Velocity Outflows in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 Quasars


Tim Kostersitz

UW Bothell

Mentor: Dr. Luisa T. Buchman

Research project: Improvement of Outer Boundary Conditions for Binary Black Hole Numerical Simulations


Chris McJunkin

UW Bothell

Mentor: Dr. Eric Salathé

Research project: Heat Wave Projections for the PNW


August Muller

Haverford College, Physics

Mentor: Dr. Joey Shapiro Key

Research project: Finding EMRIs in Simulated LISA Data


Cuauhtliztac Nicholas

Green River College

Mentor: Dr. Subramanian Ramachandran

Research project: Applications of Thin Films in Optics, Superconductivity, and Surface Science


María Notario

UW Seattle

Mentor: Dr. Ansel Neunzert

Research project: Identification and Characterization of LIGO Spectral Artifacts


Alicia Palmerin

Colgate College, Astrophysics

Mentor: Dr. Joseph Glaser

Research project: OBSCURE: Determining the Likelihood of Exoplanetary System Configurations from Observational Catalogs


Michael Parker

William & Mary

Mentor: Dr. Paola Rodrí­guez Hidalgo

Research project: Finding Extremely High-Velocity Outflows in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 Quasars


Myrla Phillippe

University of Central Florida, Physics

Mentor: Dr. Joseph Glaser

Research project: OBSCURE: Determining the Likelihood of Exoplanetary System Configurations from Observational Catalogs


Satveer Sandhu

UW Bothell

Mentor: Dr. Eric Salathé

Research project: Heat Wave Projections for the PNW


Kaia Smith

Scripps College, Physics

Mentor: Dr. Joey Shapiro Key

Research project: Finding EMRIs in Simulated LISA Data


AuDuyen Trinh

UW Seattle

Mentor: Dr. Ansel Neunzert

Research project: Identification and Characterization of LIGO Spectral Artifacts


Andrea Wooley

Western Washington University, Physics

Mentor: Dr. Rachel Scherr

Research project: Developing Professional Vision for Equity with Periscope Lessons


Kedar Yadav

UW Bothell

Mentor: Dr. Eric Salathé

Research project: Heat Wave Projections for the PNW


Christine Ye

Eastlake High School

Mentor: Dr. Jeff Hazboun

Research project: Searching for Gravitational Waves with a Galactic Array of Pulsars


Funded by National Science Foundation Award #2050928.