{"id":14020,"date":"2010-05-05T13:02:16","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T17:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=14020"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:42:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:42:34","slug":"class-of-2010-michael-abramczyk-college-of-liberal-arts-and-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/05\/class-of-2010-michael-abramczyk-college-of-liberal-arts-and-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2010: Michael Abramczyk, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\"<p>Michael<\/a>
Michael Abramczyk. Photo by Frank Dahlmeyer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Physics and philosophy double major Michael Abramczyk wants to understand why the universe works the way it does.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn physics, I mainly study particles and the fundamental laws that keep the world in check,\u201d says Abramczyk, who graduates this month. \u201cPhilosophy lets me explore how we know that the things we say [in regards to science] are true.\u201d<\/p>\n

A University Scholar and recipient of both the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship and the Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellowship, Abramczyk pursue a Ph.D. in physics at Columbia University beginning next fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is doggedly persistent in asking questions about how the universe works,\u201d says Jill Deans, director of the Office of National Scholarships at UConn, who handled Abramczyk\u2019s scholarship application.<\/p>\n

The Goldwater awards were established by Congress in 1986 in honor of former Senator Barry Goldwater to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. The Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellowship was designed to support outstanding students in basic research areas in physics and other sciences. Through this fellowship, the Office of Science hopes to encourage the development of the next generation of scientific and technical talent in the U.S. Only 80 such scholarships are awarded each year, to students across the United States.<\/p>\n

Even as a high school student, Abramczyk exhibited a will to learn and push his limits, says Thomas Blum, an associate professor of physics who was Abramczyk\u2019s advisor. Blum and Abramczyk have co-authored a paper on a phenomenon called the \u201cchiral magnetic effect,\u201d which was presented in Beijing last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael first contacted me about collaborating with me on my research before he even arrived as a freshman,\u201d says Blum. \u201cI knew then that he was unique. A freshman already versed in particle physics, evidently self-taught, and with excitement! You just can\u2019t teach that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of academics, Abramczyk has been involved in the UConn Physics Club and is currently acting as the club\u2019s vice president. In the past, he worked as an Residence Hall Association representative for the Shippee residence hall when the building housed freshman students participating in the Honors Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A double major in physics and philosophy, Michael Abramczyk is the winner of two national awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-14020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 06:34:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14020"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37492,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14020\/revisions\/37492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14020"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=14020"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}