Outstanding Graduates Physics
2023
Danny Rubin
Danny Rubin '23 has been an outstanding student in the Department of Physics and Engineering, an accomplished athlete on the Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field teams, and an inspirational member of the Westmont community as a whole. Not only has he excelled in every aspect of our challenging physics curriculum, but his passion for learning has been infused throughout all of his academic pursuits.
2022
Lexy Gillette
Lexy Gillette '22 has the unique ability to integrate her knowledge of physics with other areas that she is studying within the liberal arts environment. Not only was she dedicated to learning physics extraordinarily well, but she was enthusiastic about connecting that knowledge to open-ended inquiry. We fully anticipate that Lexy will be the kind of intellectual who will make lasting contributions to her chosen field of study and will develop novel ways to apply those insights to society as a whole.
2021
Christina Dubell & Logan Hodgson
Christina Dubell '21 came to Westmont as an Augustinian Scholar and she has contributed to Westmont is many ways. She is a triple major in Engineering/Physics as well as two music majors (both the BS and performance). From the moment she entered she was driven to accomplish every goal for mastering both the intuition and mathematical complexities of physics and the creative but also technical work of understanding and producing beautiful music. She is the model of the Christian liberal arts. She is completing a major honors project “Measuring Protein Adsorption with EW-CRDS” in Physical Chemistry with Michael Everest.
Logan Hodgson '21 came to Westmont as an Augustinian Scholar and will leave as a triple major in Engineering/Physics, Music and Math (easy majors all). A brilliant student in his classes, he has been an outstanding TA in several classes that students have come to depend on. He combines an intuitive understanding of physics with the mathematical chops to handle the hardest of calculations. He did research at Las Cumbres Observatory analyzing thermal noise in CCD arrays as well as developing software for tracking asteroid orbits. He’s a talented cellist who is loved by all who know him.
2020
Luke Myers
A National Merit semifinalist, Luke Myers '20 came to Westmont as an Augustinian Scholar. He graduated in physics after just three years. Besides excelling in all out classes, he’s done research at Las Cumbres Observatory doing instrumental analysis. His supervisor raved about his work. He is well rounded, having worked with foster kids at Royal Family Kids Camp, worked with Academic computing, gone on Potter’s Clay and played on the Ultimate Frisbee and water polo club teams. He is outwardly focused with a caring heart. He is the student that a decade from now you brag about having taught him.
2019
Louise Naumann
Louise Naumann '19, an Augustinian Scholar, came to Westmont after graduating high school with 86 college units while serving as a teacher’s assistant in calculus, statistics and AP Physics. She also did a year of research in the Amgen Biotechnology Experience at UC Santa Barbara. Her first semester at Westmont, she took senior quantum mechanics, earning the top grade in the class on the final. She completed her physics major in three semesters and was a pole vaulter on Westmont’s track and field team. In the summer of 2018, she conducted research at Harvard Medical School, designing and fabricating a radiation sensor array using a 3D printer to provide quality assurance for radiation treatment of metastatic brain tumors. “In fact, metastatic brain tumors are among the most expensive kind of cancer to treat,” she says. “Prototyping these sensor arrays helps us research alternative methods of quality assurance, lowering the cost of this type of treatment. The most powerful part of my time in Boston was being in the hospital testing our sensors in the same room where patients were receiving treatments all day long. We would come in the evenings, after the treatments had been administered for the day, and conduct research in hope of improving that treatment for future patients.
“When I wasn’t conducting research, I enjoyed being in the culturally diverse and historically rich city of Boston.” She’s been accepted to the PhD medical physics program at UCLA and hopes to continue working in the field of cancer research.
2018
Tim Beccue
Tim Beccue '18, a cellist who won first place ($5,000) in the instrumental honors at the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation finals in April, epitomizes a liberal arts graduate. He spent last summer studying atmospheric fluid dynamics with physics professor Jonathan Mitchell. “We used computational models to examine the influences of certain atmospheric oscillations (waves) near the equator,” he says. He has also used the Westmont observatory to conduct measurements of variable stars and recent comet breakups. “I’m working with Professor Michael Sommermann in the field of astrodynamics, examining spacecraft trajectories to Mars and the numerical techniques required to create accurate models.” Tim and two other Westmont musicians will perform this summer at the Encore chamber music festival in Ohio. “I love working hard with a small group of friends towards a common goal,” he says. “A great example of this is chamber music, which has proven to be a consistent highlight of my time at Westmont. Tim, who also participated on the Westmont in Istanbul program, is applying to graduate schools to study artificial intelligence. “It sits at the focal point of many of my interests, including math and physics, philosophy, psychology and creativity,” he says.
2017
Han Chung
Han Chung '17 is a quiet and really bright student. Transferring into our program he was taking lower and upper level courses at the same time, (including modern physics and quantum mechanics). He’s graded and TA’d for us and became significantly involved in research with Dr. Nishimura. He did significant software work for the research including rewriting the Matlab software codes for desorption data--making it so much easier to analyze the data. He developed excel macros for mass spectral data enhancing data analysis. Finally, he came up with an Excel database method allowing observation of trends in the data that led to publication of their data. Han is a quintessential team player with a servant’s heart and it is a pleasure to work with him.
2016
Aria Hamann
Aria Hamann '16 combines scientific brilliance with an artistic nature reflected in her double major of physics and art. A Monroe Scholar, Aria has been incredibly accomplished in her time at Westmont. She was one of roughly 20 American Physical Society Minority Scholars nationwide. She did summer research at Harvard University as part of the National Science Foundation REU program. She also did nuclear physics research with Dr. Rogers here at Westmont and at Michigan State. For the coming year she has received a Fulbright Fellowship to work on research at Delft University in the Netherlands. This means she will defer her acceptance to the Harvard Applied Physics PhD program.
Paul Wintz
Paul Wintz '16 transferred to Westmont in his junior year and has made a profound impact on the Physics Department and the college. He’s been a popular TA in the department, as well as a brilliant violinist in the orchestra and president of Westmont’s Not For Sale anti-human trafficking club. He is minoring in music in addition to his engineering/physics major. Dr. Sommermann, teacher of Paul’s computational physics course, says Paul is currently applying numerical methods for solving partial differential equations in order to model the motion of a bowed violin string, and using a Fourier analysis to show the resulting harmonic spectrum of the wave. This coming year, Paul plans to apply to the Institute of Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University.
2015
Nathaniel Taylor
While we love all our students, we especially appreciate and honor those who combine brilliance, hard work, a kind and compassionate heart and a sterling character such as our graduate of the year Nathaniel Taylor '15. A member of the Westmont community since being born to proud parents Jim and Jennifer Taylor, Nathaniel has made a deep impression of his own as an outstanding math and physics major. He has been an insightful and sought-after TA for several of our courses. He has also done significant research with Dr. Rogers over two summers, which will soon result in Nathaniel’s co-authorship on a published paper. He plans to pursue a career in software development or perhaps work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.