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Augusta Abrahamse

Biography

Selected Honors: National Merit Scholar; Student Honors Board; School of International Service Undergraduate Cabinet; SIS Freshman Observer to the Rank and Tenure Committee; Russian Club Vice President; Secretary/Vice President of AU's Society of Physics Students; Phi Beta Kappa

Other Interests: Violin: AU Symphony Orchestra (concertmaster for two years) and AU Chamber Orchestra; ballroom dancing: American Ballroom Club president; Intercontinental Danceport Festival; president of high school Sierra Club for two years; aerobics and jogging

Augusta Abrahamse's goal is to pursue a doctorate in physics. But first she hopes to acquire a master's degree in applied mathematics in order to "broaden my arsenal of mathematical tools necessary for the study of physics." Augusta became "hopelessly hooked on physics" after taking a course in astronomy late in her undergraduate career. She says she grew "alarmed at how much I was enjoying myself!" Until then, she was double majoring in music and international studies.

In high school, Augusta pursued an independent study in Polish, and upon graduation, set off to be an exchange student in Gdansk. She spent her junior year of college in Moscow. Living abroad, she felt like "an explorer for whom the smallest acts of daily living were adventures."

Augusta calls music "perhaps the most meaningful" of her pursuits. Since she began taking lessons at age seven, playing violin has been "a stress outlet, a method of self-expression, and a way to interact with others." In Poland, she played with a local youth orchestra, and in Russia, she took lessons from a professor of the Moscow Conservatory.

For Augusta, music and physics inspire similar feelings: "The idea of layers of complexity interacting with one another, whether in an orchestra or in the universe itself, is wonder-provoking and beautiful."

She is fascinated by the questions physicists seek to answer "about the nature of energy and matter, how the universe was created, and the forces that bind it all together." While she says she is driven by a desire to work on such questions, she would also like to have the opportunity to teach so that she can infuse others with the excitement she feels.

Augusta has no doubt that physics will always inspire her natural curiosity. As she puts it, "The study of physics is, after all, a search for answers. It can't hurt to be enthusiastic about the questions!"

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