Nick Eminizer

Major: Physics           Year: Senior        Hometown: Patterson, NY

Project title: "Quantum Entanglement in Decays of the psi(3770) meson"
Type of Support: SURF

When did you become involved in undergraduate research at CMU?  I started research with Professor Roy Briere in September of 2011, the beginning of my junior year.

How did you find your mentor?  I first met my mentor when he gave a lecture about High Energy Particle Physics at the BESIII detector in Beijing in my undergrad physics colloquium in the spring of my sophomore year. I really enjoyed the talk, for both its content and delivery, and it became my goal to work with Roy. I told my academic advisor in September that I wanted to do research, particularly with Roy Briere, and he sent an email to get my foot in the door. I set up a meeting, explained to Roy that I didn't know anything about high energy physics except that I wanted to work with it, and he agreed to let me stop by twice a week for a lecture/lesson/informal chat. Soon I had a project and before I knew it I was doing research for credit. I kept working on the project all year long, and finished it for the physics department poser session in late April.

How has your idea/project evolved through the academic years? I'm afraid my project hasn't evolved very much since I just started and finished it this year (it was little). Next year, however, I intend to continue working with Roy on a myriad of new problems.

What successes or difficulties have you encountered in this project or others?  My experiences in research have been nothing but successful. I learned a lot and I'm very pleased with what I accomplished, especially on top of the rest of my academic schedule. I can't even really say that I hit any true setbacks; it was all software issues or time constraints, especially since Roy was always happy to go back over the physics with me.

If you could summarize your experience in one word, what would it be?  Inspiring.