Thursday, June 7, 2018
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As my first week of this internship draws to a close, I am very excited to see where this summer takes me. I have learned a lot within the first few days of my internship and I am sure I will learn a lot more. Let’s talk about the old first: I am the AIP/Society of Rheology History intern and when first offered the position, I had never even heard of rheology, which in short is the branch of physics that deals with the deformation and flow of matter. This was slightly terrifying, but the description of the position was so interesting that I was also very excited to try something new. The position focuses on researching the history of physics, specifically rheology in this case, where I had only previously researched in hard science. I will be looking at the previous winners of the Bingham Medal, an award given out by the Society of Rheology, and writing up bios about them. Though this is completely different than anything I have done previously, I was excited to learn and utilize different skills you wouldn’t normally learn in a physics class.
Between all the orientation lessons this week, I have actually started to research some of these medalists. The award was first presented in 1948 and has been given out every year since. I have begun to utilize the materials available to me in the Niels Bohr Library and Archives (NBLA) through online searches of the library and archives, as well as digging deep on the internet to find information. The archives here have so many boxes about anything physics you could imagine! While the Society of Rheology is a smaller one, the archives still contain a good amount of information about them, from pamphlets to bulletins to an actual casting mold of the Bingham medal. I have also been using oral histories that discuss the medalists from other physicists’ points of view to gather more information- all of which is online and in a transcript, which make them super easy to use! From these oral histories I have learned some fun facts about some of the medalists you wouldn’t normally find and the best one so far is definitely that the first winner, Melvin Mooney, actually LOST the medal the same night it was given to him and the society had to have another recast for him! All in all, I’m proud of the work I’ve been able to accomplish in a short amount of time.
Now for the new: This is my first time ever living in a city. My hometown is Collegeville, Pennsylvania, which is a suburb of Philly and I attend Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania which is very rural. It is an entirely new experience living with the sounds, sights, and people of D.C.! It was definitely an adjustment to sleeping in the city. Funnily enough, it wasn’t the sounds that bothered me- it was the lights! Even with the blinds pulled, a dull, orange glow comes through the windows in the dorm we are staying in. Luckily, I’ve been tired enough every night because of how busy we are that it doesn’t bother me too much. I’ve also made a lot of new friends already! The group of interns here are honestly some of the friendliest and most outgoing people I have met. I already feel pretty close with my roommates Amanda and Kristen, as well as our roommate Jillian who is not in the SPS internship, but is doing an internship on policy also in D.C. The first Monday after orientation, we all went to Stephanie, Sarah, Sam, and Daniel’s room, where it was kind of a potluck meal and enjoyed a nice group dinner together! It was a fun time to reflect on our orientation day and get ready for our first real day of work on Tuesday.
I am excited to see where this summer takes me, both through the old and the new. There is so much I want to experience in D.C., probably more than our ten weeks’ worth. I look forward to working on my project and living in D.C. with such an amazing group of people!
Mikayla Cleaver