DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research, 2020 and 2021
The twentieth annual DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research at the APS LS conference was held remotely on Monday, 14 September, 2020, and the twenty-first symposium was held remotely as well on Monday, 1 November, 2021. The remote format meant that the presentations in both years were entirely oral: there were no poster sessions. The talks were all given by students reporting on projects they performed at about 50 universities or research institutes.
The Symposium talks were run in two parallel sessions starting at 11 am EST (to accommodate presenters and participants on the West coast) and ending at 6:30 pm. In both years the Symposium concluded with a special presentation given by Dr. Brad Conrad who is the National Director of the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma. He provided advice on graduate schools, career trajectories, and multiple other personal topics of great interest to the students.
The total number of presentations in both years had to be limited to 48 (10 min + 2 min for Q&A). There were several second authors to some submissions, so the total number of student participants was 57 in 2020 and 61 in 2021. In 2020 twenty-three presenters were female, an impressive representation of almost 40%. In 2021 there were as many as thirty female presenters, an unprecedented representation of nearly 50%. These Symposia have brought over 800 students to our annual meetings to present what are often the first research papers of their budding careers.
Session presiders during 2020 were: Herman Batelaan (Univ. Nebraska), Eric Borguet (Temple Univ.), Amy Sullivan (Univ. CO), Michael (Middlebury College), Irina Novikova (College of William and Mary), Catherine Herne (SUNY New Paltz), Nathan Lindquist (Bethel Univ.), and Klaus Bartschat (Drake Univ.)
Session presiders during 2021 were: Eric Jones (Stony Brook), Hong Lin (Bates), Seth Aubin (William and Mary), Nathan Lindquist (Bethel), Michael Durst (Middlebury), Jenny Magnes (Vassar), Catherine Herne (SUNY New Paltz)
Students commented: “Even though the conference was remote, it benefited me in multiple ways. I gained experience giving a scientific presentation and exposure to other research in optical physics. I attended all the talks in my session which were really interesting because I could learn about research being conducted at other universities. Also, I attended the career insights special event. Both presenters’ stories were helpful because they gave great advice about pursuing a career path in physics research and how it's not always a straightforward journey.”
“This was my first time presenting research at a conference so it was a great learning experience, and I was really impressed by the projects other undergrads have been working on. I loved the career talk by Dr. William Phillips and Dr. Elsa Gamire; they shared several useful pieces of advice which will stay with me. Additionally, I attended the keynote by Dr. Nargis Malvalvala and Dr. Mikhail Lukin (at the Quantum 2.0 conference). All in all, it was great and I hope to go back and watch some of the recorded sessions.”
“….. This was the first time I have had the chance to do so, and I am extremely grateful for everything you did to provide this chance.”
“It gave me a lot to look forward to in my research this summer and early fall. I always get pretty nervous presenting my own work, so it was actually pretty helpful to be able to present virtually, where I couldn't see everyone I was talking to. Listening to research other people have done is also really enlightening, especially when they're doing similar research, so I'm able to better understand what they are talking about.”
“Preparing for the Symposium was a great opportunity to consider my research outside of the context of my lab group and reflect on why it might be of interest to other young researchers. Watching other undergraduate talks allowed me to appreciate and better understand the variety and creativity of research in optical physics, as well as the connections between my work and what others are investigating. I also found the regular programming spectacular and enjoyed watching five or six talks from accomplished researchers. The virtual format and the recording of sessions made it quite easy and convenient to join different sessions and offered me an ability to see great speakers that I wouldn't have otherwise.”
The remote format eliminated most costs: the only expense in both years was the registration fee that was handled by DLS. The OSA meetings department provided technical support for the online session management. The remote Symposia in 2020 and 2021 were organized and arranged by Harold Metcalf, Stony Brook University, and Samir Bali, Miami University.
Top