Nicola Peyko

I am a Physics major at Sonoma State University (SSU and I have been a part of our SPS chapter since the spring of 2013. I am greatly involved in the Physics department as well as the SSU community through my leadership roles on campus. I am fortunate to be the current vice president of our chapter to continue the legacy and name that we have been able to attain.  Since I have been a member of our chapter we have received the SPS National Marsh White Award twice, Future Faces twice, as well as the Sigma Pi Sigma Undergraduate Research grants. I was able to learn how to write grants, help facilitate physics demonstrations, as well as help develop the ground station on top of our student center.  By these grants we have been able to reach more people and expose them to physics while building our own community within our chapter. As the current vice president I want to continue building up the foundations of our club, by continuously reaching out to more individuals and allowing our new members to gain experience through new opportunities. Academically, I have excelled in my classes and wish to continue on to receive my teaching credential to teach high school physics. I have also been working on my senior capstone project since the spring semester of 2015 which is on fabrication and characterization of Mg and In doped ZnO thin films. The objective is to create a transparent coding for solar cells with high transparency over specific wavelengths.