Hello! I’m Julian Davis and currently I am a junior at CalState East Bay working toward a Physics B.S. in the Spring of 2023. I have lived in Berkeley, California, all my life. I am very honored to have been chosen for the Cal-Bridge Program.
My path to education hasn’t been an easy one because of my learning differences. By the beginning of 7th grade, I couldn’t multiply or write the sentence you see here. But with intensive teaching and hard work, I was able to catch up with my peers, learning algebra, writing essays, and graduating from my high school as class valedictorian. My high school science teacher opened the world of science to me and was an important mentor for me on my path to college.
In September of 2016, I entered CalState East Bay as a Biological Sciences major and a year later, as part of the biological sciences coursework, I took a Newtonian physics course taught by Dr. Kathryn Grimm. Dr. Grimm’s lectures described a world made of natural laws, forces, and tiny particles. I was so captivated by physics that I switched majors in the Fall of 2018.
In 2019, I interned for an incredible summer at the Advanced Light Source (Beamline 8.3.2) at Laurence Berkeley National Laboratory. The team I worked with studied ablative heat shield structure for a NASA project. My specific research objective was to calculate and graph carbon fiber porosity using x-ray tomography (micro-CT) scans of the material. It is my understanding that my team’s research contributed in a modest way to the heat shield used on the 2020 Mars Perseverance Rover.
Since September 2020, I have been participating in research with Dr. Grimm in collaboration with the ATLAS Radiation Simulation Working Group and CERN. We have been generating histograms of simulated signals and background, trying to account for unexpected radiation damage discovered when comparing ATLAS predictive modeling and actual experimentation. I find this work extremely rewarding in terms of expanding my knowledge of particle physics and programming, as well as the relationship I have built with my mentor Dr. Grimm.
And just this June of 2021, I found out that I was accepted as a Cal-Bridge Scholar! Being a part of the Cal-Bridge program is life changing for me. Without the mentors who have guided me along the way, I wouldn’t be at CalState East Bay on track to graduate with a physics degree. The mentoring and support Cal-Bridge offers will be essential as I navigate the daunting process of applying for and transitioning to a PhD program in physics. I want to go as far as I can—from a kid who couldn’t multiply, all the way to my dream of teaching and research. I hope that one day I will be able to give back by helping others learn despite the obstacles they must overcome.