Happy Black History Month! We know we've come to the end of February, but Black excellence is to be celebrated every day of the year. We'll post our remaining interviews and more in the coming weeks. Next up: Caleb Levy!
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| Caleb Levy (he/him), Colgate University '23 |
CSMA: Okay. Great. Thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview! Please introduce yourself with your name, your pronouns and your major and where you're at.
Caleb: Sure. Yeah. So, my name's Caleb Levy. My pronouns are he/him/his. I'm majoring in physics and minoring in math at Colgate University. I'm originally from Kingston, Jamaica, so I'm an international student. I left Jamaica when I came to Colgate, so pretty recently.
CSMA: Awesome. And what is your elevator pitch of your research focus?
Caleb: So at Colgate, my research has centered on constraining dark matter properties through possible future observations of different astrophysical objects. Specifically, starting my freshman summer to junior fall, I primarily focused on using the hypothetical Population III stars, which we haven't found yet, but how those could be potentially used to detect dark matter through mechanisms of dark matter capture and annihilation and then subsequent annihilation in those objects.
I also worked with my advisor here, Professor Cosmin Ilie, on extending the formalism for capture of dark matter in astrophysical objects so that we could account for scattering with multiple nuclear species. So before it was limited to capture just from the most dominant element inside the objects, but we work to make that more general.
CSMA: All right, thanks for that intro and explanation of your research. Science talk: done! This is really an interview to get to know you and your journey. To start off - what inspired you to pursue a career in astronomy or science in general?
Caleb: Yeah. So I initially wanted to be a pilot growing up, that was kind of my trajectory. So when I was choosing my subjects in high school, I was kind of picking it along those lines. For some reason, I think a lot of people were recommending geography, and of course physics. So that's when I first kind of got introduced to physics academically, and I always had an interest in these general pop science ideas I got from media. I didn't read any books before high school on astronomy though, so I kind of just had a very vague interest in that. I started taking physics my first two years. I was actually just okay. I was a pretty average physics student, but then the dream, the pilot dream kind of fell through ‘cause it's really expensive. And so it just, it wasn't a feasible thing. So I kind of focused my efforts on physics in my last two years of high school. And once I started actively trying in it, I found that I, you know, I did well in it. I kind of said, ‘Okay, yeah, probably. Yeah, this is what I want to do.’ From that point on, in my last couple of years of high school, that's when I started reading a lot of pop physics books: Neil deGrasse Tyson, A Brief History of Time, that kind of stuff. I was like ‘You know, this is cool. This is what I want to do.’
CSMA: So, in your opinion, what about those books and what about astronomy was so unique and compelling?
Caleb: It still to this day kind of blows my mind how much we are able to infer just by looking and thinking. I think that just general idea of looking at a little speck in the sky and creating a whole framework to explain it is great.
I mean, obviously it's not perfect, not yet. But explaining all that stuff, I just found really appealing. I'm really interested in cosmology as well at this point. And I kind of see myself heading in a direction of theoretical physics, but toward more cosmology and how that interfaces with particle physics.
CSMA: That makes a lot of sense when you're talking especially about the Population III stars, early universe conditions, and how observations of those could lead to a better understanding of dark matter. You start with a simple observation and get a lot of info in theory, which is really compelling. This next question, it can be related to your research or just in general, is there anything that you are particularly proud of that you'd like to share?
Caleb: Sure. Yeah, I think at this point, I kind of have two proudest achievements. The first was being a coauthor on a paper that was published. I mean, when I came in as a freshman, I was pretty dead-set on the physics track in terms of research, so I tried very hard to get opportunities early on. But it [publishing] was something that I never thought would happen at that point. And it's really put me in a good position in terms of thinking about grad school.
So yeah, I'm really, really proud of that. And the other thing is I presented at the National Society of Black Physicists Conference in November this past year. I presented the research I've been doing with Professor Ilie about extending the formalism, and I ended up getting a prize for the best oral undergraduate presentation.
CSMA: Congratulations!
Caleb: Thanks, yeah I wasn't expecting it because I gave that talk a few times ‘cause of school. All the other times, it was during the summer and I had so much time to prepare, but this one was during school and I did not prepare that much. I managed to get through though.
CSMA: I guess you had really good muscle memory then from having given this presentation before. That's awesome. Those are both excellent, excellent achievements. You mentioned grad school a little bit, what are your long-term career goals, you know, what are the next steps?
Caleb: I want to pursue a PhD, definitely in the theory realm. Probably theoretical cosmology/particle theory. And then after that, you know, the long long-term goal is to end up at a university and teach and do research. And if not that specifically, I think research is kind of my main focus.
So if I end up somewhere where I'm doing research and not teaching, that would be fine, but I do enjoy teaching, so that would be a nice complement.
CSMA: That’s great! Speaking of teaching, what mentors, teachers, or role models have been the most inspiring to you in your life?
Caleb: I think the first, real physics mentor that I had was in high school. In my last few years of high school, I had a really amazing physics teacher who would take the time out to listen to me and allow me to go through my convoluted thoughts about things and let me make it make sense in my head.
So he was probably the first main one. And since I've come to Colgate, definitely my research advisor has been really instrumental in my success. And another person that I really look up to as a physicist is Stephon Alexander.
CSMA: He just gave a colloquium virtually for us on Tuesday, he's phenomenal.
Caleb: Yeah! So I'm sure you probably know he has a book called The Jazz of Physics. And so I actually started listening to jazz when I got to Colgate. One of my intro seminar courses was a jazz course. I got really into it. And then I found this book and I was like ‘This is right up my alley.’ And the type of research that he's doing is almost exactly what I want for myself. So he really embodies a lot of how I want to do physics.
CSMA: Are you thinking of applying to Brown to work with him as a grad student?
Caleb: Yeah. I mean, I probably will and I'll probably reach out to him at some point. I actually spoke to a current grad student of his who is a Colgate alum. So I reached out to her and yeah, that's definitely on my radar.
CSMA: That's cool, I hope you two get to work together. Let’s see, next question… What challenges and obstacles have you faced in your career and how have you overcome these challenges?
Caleb: I think probably the biggest obstacle throughout my life has been financial stability. When I grew up in Jamaica, technically I grew up middle-class, but it wasn't necessarily the most stable. We kind of lived paycheck to paycheck. And even though it's middle-class in Jamaica, by American standards, it's very different. So even wanting to pursue physics and go abroad to do that, the only way that was ever going to happen was if I managed to snag a full ride. I managed to almost virtually do that and that has been a huge thing, but even, you know, being here, even though most of my tuition is paid, it's hard living on student wages and all of that. And it's an interesting dynamic, I will say, being at this school which is very, very wealthy. So dealing with that culture shock, I guess, coming from Jamaica, I'd say that's probably the main thing.
CSMA: So with these experiences, what advice would you give to high school and undergraduate students of color following in your path who might be coming from a similar place?
Caleb: I think my main, my main piece of advice would be ‘Don't stress.’ I think it's don't stress too much about details academically, especially if you're in some kind of research position. You’re going to have to learn as you go. I think, that was one of the biggest lessons I've learned from my research because I stepped in right off of freshman year reading papers. I wanted to understand every single detail in the paper, but you just can't do that and get anywhere if you're trying to do so. My biggest piece of advice would be to just throw yourself in and don't worry too much about understanding every detail because it will come on with time.
CSMA: That’s great advice, definitely something I think a lot of us don’t realize when we’re starting out. Thinking about the field as a whole, is there anything that you would like to see change in the astronomy community? Or the cosmology community, which I know is kind of at the interface between astronomy and physics?
Caleb: I think generally more representation. One of the biggest things that I've noticed, I guess this is more to do with physics in general (but of course that's a necessary for astronomy), is as a tutor here I've seen the impact of a disproportionate levels of preparation [between minority and non-minority students] and how that affects students' performance in intro courses and their motivation, or whether or not they actually continue with a physics major. There are some initiatives that we have at Colgate that started right after my freshman year that I'm a part of, that are really trying to improve retention [of students of color]. So that's kind of the main thing that I would like to see.
CSMA: So seeing that representation yourself, and as a tutor being that representation, you’ve seen how having more people of color helping with these younger students improves the retention. Yeah, that totally makes sense.
Caleb: Yeah, yeah exactly.
CSMA: So yeah, here at the end, what does Black History Month mean to you as a student of color who is doing science?
Caleb: It's great, I mean… It's interesting because, you know, this is the first time I've been in a place where I am mostly surrounded by just white people, I'm just being frank. Celebrating Black excellence back home is a standard thing for me. Growing up, that was always something that I internalized. We have seven national heroes, and maybe one of them is white. So I'm happy that people are actively trying to celebrate this and bring this into people's consciousness here. It means a lot.
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