NSM Seniors Markovich and Williams Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

NSM Seniors Markovich and Williams Awarded NSF Graduate Research FellowshipsFellows Set to Pursue Advanced Degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics

Cameron Williams, a mathematics major and physics minor, and Thomas Markovich, a physics and mathematics double major, are 2012 recipients of National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships.

The prestigious, NSF fellowships recognize outstanding students pursuing research-based graduate degrees in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Funded for three years, the fellowships cover tuition and include a $30,000 annual stipend.

Thomas Markovich
Markovich
Markovich
Markovich is a senior physics and mathematics double major and member of the Honors College. Researching under the guidance of chemistry professor Don Kouri for several years, Markovich participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program in 2009 and the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS) program in fall 2010, as well as completed a senior honors thesis in 2011. He also won the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2011 and the Undergraduate Hyer Award in 2010. He supplements his research in physics with work in the fields of anthropology and art history, assisting a team led by research assistant professor Daniel Price that investigates a collection of pre-Mayan masks using signal processing. Markovich will begin pursuing a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in the fall and ultimately would like to conduct research in quantum information and spintronics at the university and industrial levels.

Cameron Williams
Williams
Williams
Cameron Williams is a mathematics major and physics minor. Throughout his undergraduate career, Williams conducted research in the field of supersymmetric quantum mechanics with professors Don Kouri in the chemistry department and Bernhard Bodmann in the mathematics department. Williams is working to develop a type of generalization of the Fourier transform, which is used extensively in applications ranging from analyzing images and sounds to aiding in uncovering how waves propagate in the Earth based on seismic data. This is useful for oil exploration, among other fields. It is hoped the generalization he developed will be useful in the analysis of seismic data and can have a significant impact in audio engineering and other fields, much like the Fourier transform. The group is now beginning to look into applications of these techniques with an emphasis on the analysis of seismic data. As a result of this project and its potential applications, Williams was offered an internship with Petroleum Geo-Services for the upcoming summer. He plans to attend the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, in the fall pursuing a Ph.D. in applied mathematics.