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MY NAME IS CARL SABOTTKE FROM BATON ROUGE.
I’M MAJORING IN CHEMISTRY, AND MY MINORS ARE PHYSICS, BIOLOGY,
PSYCHOLOGY, NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS.
I PICKED CHEMISTRY BECAUSE IT’S A GREAT COMBINATION
OF THE OTHER BASIC SCIENCES, IN MY MIND.
IT INVOLVES MATHEMATICS, IT INVOLVES PHYSICS,
IT INVOLVES BIOLOGY. IT’S KIND OF THE PERFECT MEETING POINT,
IN MY MIND, BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF SCIENCE.
AND IT’S A GREAT PLACE TO START WHEN GOING INTO NEUROSCIENCE,
WHICH IS WHAT I’M ULTIMATELY INTERESTED IN, IN GRADUATE SCHOOL.
I WAS BORN IN NEW JERSEY, SO WE HAVE FAMILY BACK THERE.
WE LOOKED BACK THERE, HARVARD, PRINCETON, YALE,
AT CAL TECH, STANFORD, AT ALL THE PLACES,
BUT ULTIMATELY LSU WAS THE BEST FIT.
I LOVE BATON ROUGE, LOVE LOUISIANA,
LOVE THE FOOD, I LOVE THE FOOTBALL.
BUT ALSO LSU HAS GREAT ACADEMICS AND GREAT RESEARCH
LIKE THE LA-STEM PROGRAM AND THE HHMI PROGRAM
AND THE CHANCELLOR’S RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS.
LSU PRESENTS A LOT OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR
RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE.
THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AT LSU
DEFINITELY ATTRACTED ME HERE, IT WAS A VERY STRONG DRAW.
AND THE LA-STEM PROGRAM WAS ONE OF THE BIGGEST FACTORS
IN MY DECISION TO COME TO LSU, AND
JUST THE OPPORTUNITIES IT OFFERED. FRESHMAN YEAR,
I STARTED WORKING ON THEORETICAL PHYSICS RESEARCH IN
QUANTUM OPTICS WITH DR. JONATHAN DOWLING
IN THE PHYSICS DEPARTMENT. THE SUMMER BETWEEN MY FRESHMAN YEAR
AND MY SOPHOMORE YEAR, I WORKED WITH DR. DOWLING ON
QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION AND THAT WORK HAS ACTUALLY NOW LED
TO A PUBLICATION WHICH HAS BEEN ACCEPTED
BY THE NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS.
AND ALSO DURING THE SUMMER BETWEEN MY SOPHOMORE AND
JUNIOR YEAR, LAST SUMMER, I DID AN IREU,
AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR UNDERGRADUATES,
IN ROME, IN ITALY WORKING ON GRAVITATIONAL WAVES RESEARCH.
ONE CLASS THAT I REALLY LOVED AND LEARNED A LOT FROM WAS
THE PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LAB CLASS WITH DR. RUPNIK.
THAT WAS A GREAT CLASS. IT WAS GREAT.
I LOVE THE LABS PROBABLY THE MOST,
AT LEAST THE ADVANCED ONES BECAUSE THEY HELP YOU
APPLY WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED AND YOU GET TO SEE
HOW THE THEORY IS BROUGHT TO LIFE BASICALLY.
I’VE ALSO HAD SOME GREAT LECTURE CLASSES, TOO, WITH DR. RAU IN
PHYSICS, FOR HIS MECHANICS CLASSES, WERE GREAT CLASSES.
AND IN THE NUCLEAR SCIENCE FIELD, I TOOK
A MEDICAL PHYSICS CLASS WHICH WAS REALLY GREAT, ON RADIATION,
EXPOSURE. THAT WAS GREAT TO SEE
HOW THE PUBLIC AND KIND OF, I GUESS, THE MEDIA THINKS
ABOUT RADIATION VERSUS HOW SCIENCE THINKS ABOUT RADIATION.
SO, IT WAS GREAT TO SEE THE CONTRASTS THERE.
I DEFINITELY LOVE LSU. I LOVE FOOTBALL, AND SO,
I’M DEFINITELY VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THAT.
IN THE FALL, I ALWAYS HAVE TO PLAN MY SCHEDULE
AROUND FOOTBALL BECAUSE I KNOW ON SATURDAYS
I’LL BE GOING TO THE FOOTBALL GAMES AND BE
HAVING FUN ALL DAY, AND SO, THAT INSPIRES ME TO WORK
A LOT HARDER FOR THE REST OF THE TIME.
SO IT’S A GREAT, THE FUN SIDE OF LSU,
IT ENCOURAGES THE ACADEMIC SIDE.
IT ENCOURAGES ME TO WORK HARDER.