What’s a Physicist? My Summer as a Student Intern at NIST

Valeria Viteri-Pflucker found what she was looking for at NIST: hands-on experience in running experiments.

View as a Web Page Taking Measure Blog What's a Physicist? My Summer as a Student Intern at NIST By Valeria Viteri-Pflucker, a Society of Physics Students (SPS) intern at NIST At the age of 13, I had firmly decided that I wanted to be a particle physicist, whatever that meant. All I knew is that I wanted to play with subatomic particles and was particularly fascinated by the idea of antimatter. Whenever I'd tell my parents or friends this goal, they'd inevitably ask what a particle physicist does, since they'd never met one. Amusingly enough, I didn't really know either, but that didn't matter. Fast-forward to where I am now. I earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Illinois Wesleyan University in May, and this month, I am beginning my graduate journey with a Ph.D. program in optics at the University of Rochester. During the summer, I was one of 16 students participating in a Society of Physics Students (SPS) internship program in the Washington, D.C., area, and I am one of three stationed at NIST. For many years now I have been trying to answer the question of what a physicist does. This summer has fundamentally shaped my answer to this question. Read More IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Solving a Robotics Puzzle During a Summer Internship at NIST Jan. 26, 2022 When Steven Salisbury heard about the NIST Summer High School Intern Program (SHIP), it seemed like a golden opportunity to gain real-world engineering experience and understanding with top experts in the field while growing his passion for problem solving. Read More

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