Symposium at the Riverside STEM Academy High School on finding one's way in science.

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A G U I D E T O F I N D I N G Y O U R W AY I N S C I E N C E
Prof. Flip Tanedo
6 Sept. 2017
UC Riverside Particle Theory
I HAVE NO IDEA
Riverside STEM Academy Symposium
physics.ucr.edu/~flip/
@FlipTanedo

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What I study: Dark Matter
J. Peasley, Particle Zoo
It exists.
We’re swimming in it
It’s most of everything
80% of matter

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What I study: Dark Matter
J. Peasley, Particle Zoo
You can’t see it.
… or touch it
… or smell/taste/hear it
(or can you?)
How can you possibly
“do science” on it?
My job: answer this question.

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My official title
Theoretical Particle Physicist
What is the smallest stuff?
Why is the universe made of matter?
Why is the universe expanding?
Why is the Higgs boson so light?
What are the fundamental laws
of nature? What are the fundamental
building blocks of nature?
Why are there so many particles?
Why are there 4 forces?
Is our universe special?

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What it looks like (to my students)
Photo: Mandy Guo

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What it looks like (to me)
Photo (right): Bibhushan Shakya

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More about all this

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My science life so far
High School
North Hollywood High
College
Stanford
Grad School
Cambridge (MASt)
Durham (MSc)
Cornell (PhD)
Professor
UC Riverside

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Four pieces of advice
be curious
science fans
vs. scientists
your science
community
challenge
yourself
HS
College
Grad School
Professor

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HS
College
Prof.
Different
School?
Different
Major?
MEDICALSCHOOL
BUSINESS
SCIENCE
WRITER
MILITARY
TECH
GOVERNMENT
TEACHING
PhD
Parallel Universes

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High School
Academic Decathlon, LAUSD Scrimmage, 2001

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Be Curious
Images: Millenium Falcon: Wookiepedia, Lego (2017)

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Be Curious
Everythingislegos!

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How I became a particle physicist
From my notebook in college

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… big stuff, too

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Be Curious
There are no stupid questions
Only stupid students…
… who don’t ask questions

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Know what you don’t
Images: G. O’Beirne (Wikimedia), Game of Thrones (HBO)
Socrates
Ygritte
What you know
What humanity
knows

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What you know
What humanity
knows
The Goal

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What you know
What humanity
knows
Actually… more like this
General Specific

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Four pieces of advice
be curious
science fans
vs. scientists
your science
community
challenge
yourself
HS
College
Grad School
Professor

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College
Photos from the Fisher Group, Applied Physics, Stanford University c2004

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Don’t confuse science with fandom
SMBC comics:1777

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Going beyond science fandom
As before: be curious, ask questions.
Two additional pieces of advice:
1. Know how to program
2. Learn as much statistics as you can
Image: P-47 Thunderbolt, USAAF
1.1
1.7
1.5
rest of plane: 1.8
The big data era!

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Four pieces of advice
be curious
science fans
vs. scientists
your science
community
challenge
yourself
HS
College
Grad School
Professor

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Graduate School
High School
You are here.
Undergraduate
Expensive. (sucks)
Pick your major.
Pick your classes.
Survive finals.
Do research.
Find yourself, etc.

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What you know
What humanity
knows
General Specific
PhD

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Graduate School
Graduate School (PhD)
In STEM: free
Classes are not the point
… often not even graded
Guided by a PhD adviser.
Criterion: mastery of new
knowledge. You finish
when you finish.

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Science is a Human Endeavor
Csáki Research Group, Cornell Physics Department, c2012

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Science is a Human Endeavor
1. Impostor’s Syndrome is common. Fight it.
2. Collaboration vs. Competition.
Prisoner’s Dilemma.

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Prisoner’s Dilemma
You Collaborate
You Snitch
They
Collaborate
They
Snitch
probation
for both
you go to jail
for 3 years
they go to jail
for 3 years
but you’re free
2 years of jail
for both

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Collaborate. Always Collaborate.
MIAPP (Munich)

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Four pieces of advice
be curious
science fans
vs. scientists
your science
community
challenge
yourself

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Science is a Creative Endeavor
1. Be creative. Make a list of all of your brilliant
ideas. It helps to have colleagues.
2. Try to kill them all. Use all the tools of
science available. Logic, experiment,
observation, probability, previous work,…
3. Study the things that you couldn’t kill.

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Kill your babies
Iseverythinglegos?
NO! Legos don’t know quantum mechanics

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A very loaded question
Do you believe in
climate change?

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A very loaded question
Do you believe in
climate change?
You are young scientists. You can do better than “believe”.

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What I study: Dark Matter
J. Peasley, Particle Zoo
You can’t see it.
… or touch it
… or smell/taste/hear it
(or can you?)
How can you possibly
“do science” on it?
My job: answer this question.

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Be ambitious
Do not be held back by preconceptions of
how things have to be done.
Nobody has been down your path before.

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Four pieces of advice
be curious
science fans
vs. scientists
your science
community
challenge
yourself
HS
College
Grad School
Professor

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A WWII puzzle
Image: P-47 Thunderbolt, USAAF
Anecdote from How Not to Be Wrong by J. Ellenberg
Abraham Wald
S TAT I S T I C A L
R E S E A R C H G R O U P
1.11
1.73
1.55
rest of plane: 1.8
How to best armor a plane?
Data: bullet holes per sq. inch