141 Professor Sidney NagelWhat do you think the coolest part of your research is? Seeing something beautiful or understanding a phenomenon that was puzzling in a beautiful way. Is your current research similar to the work you did as an undergrad or graduate student? My research work as an undergraduate dealt with building a detector for a particle physics experiment. In graduate school, I worked on the optical properties of metals in the infrared. These have very little to do with the work I do now which has to do with the behavior of fluids and with the properties of disordered matter. What is your favorite non-physics way to spend time? I like to garden, do woodwork, do photography, listen to music and read. What is your favorite place on campus? There is a room in the Oriental Institute which has the enormous head of a bull from Persepolis. It is an amazing room and I feel so much more calm after having been in there. What is your favorite part of the introductory physics sequence and why? I find that the second quarter of the sequence, where the laws of electricity and magnetism are discussed, is absolutely fantastic. After only ten weeks, we are able to show where light comes from! It is a surprise of the first order. Understanding the nature of light came from studying something that at the beginning seemed to be completely irrelevant to that phenomenon. Do you have children/pets/plants that make guest appearances on your zoom calls? My sixteen year old cat insists on climbing into my lap at times during Zoom calls. She is very shy at other times. You can learn more about Professor Nagel's research on the Department of Physics webpage and the Nagel Group webpage. Meet the 130s & 140s Professors is a series of mini interviews with professors teaching the standard and honors introductory physics sequences, 13100-13300 and 14100-14300 respectively.
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