Sophie Roberts

Biography

I am a senior physics major at the University of Northern Iowa. I am passionate about physics and feel that it is important to share my knowledge and enthusiasm with others. I am currently the Co-President of UNI’s SPS chapter, a Sigma Pi Sigma inductee, and have previously served as the secretary/treasurer of UNI’s SPS chapter. I will also be the Associate Zone Councilor for Zone 11 in the upcoming year. Over the summer of 2019, I conducted research on building a device that controls the electrochemical etching of Scanning Tunneling Microscope tips. I had the opportunity to present this research at PhysCon 2019. PhysCon is an experience that greatly reinforced my desire to pursue a research career in physics. I was inspired by my fellow physicists that I had the honor of meeting at this conference. Since the summer of 2020, I have also worked on image analysis of biomolecule images using MATLAB image processing software. This summer I will be participating in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s MRSEC program. After I graduate, I plan to obtain a Ph.D. in experimental condensed matter physics or materials science. I am interested in developing new tools to investigate the properties and behaviors of novel materials. Outside of physics, I enjoy playing bass in the UNI jazz bands and learning new songs on the guitar.