Biography

My name is Robert Sokolowski. I am currently a junoir at Stony Brook University studying physics. I became a nerd at a young age when I sumbled across an Atari 800 in my attic. I taught myself some basic programming techniques and created some text-based adventure games. After someone showed me how to make a point move across the screen using a For loop, I created a 'Pong' clone. Today, I still enjoy tinkering with programming and *nix operating systems.

I got interested in physics after over hearing my older borther say that he didn't understand special relativity. That night, I grabbed a copy of Brian Greene's The Elegant Univsere and read the first hundred pages, and was fascinated by the thought experiments. The next day, I showed off my new knowldge. "Great," he said sarcastically. I was very satisfied. From then on I continued to read more about physics, but never bothered to take any formal physics courses until the end of highscool. After enrolling in AP physics, I discovered that math, as well as physics is cool.

The summarize my physics education so far, the courses I have taken at Stony Brook are: Introductory Physics I & II, Modern Physics, Computation for Physics and Astronomy, Wave and Optics, and Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Currently, I am taking Junoir Lab, E&M I, Mechanics, and The Quantum Moment, which is a physics and philosphy course. Outside the classroom, I have been interning at East Coast Optical Technologies. Here, I have learned hands-on techniques for assembling instruments, some microcontroller programming and have expanded my knowledge of computer networking. While I enjoy my internship, the focus is on business and not academics. This limits the amount of new physics I learn from work. By spending time at the LTC, I wish to continue to work hands-on, as well as explore new physics I wouldn't come across in my classes.

Outside of physics, I enjoy math, programming, playing the game of Go, cooking and listening to music. I love classical music and play the guitar and trumpet.