Sometimes we write about innovations in research or awards for research. Other times we write about innovations in teaching or teaching awards. It’s not that often that we get to talk about innovations in research about teaching. That’s because while it’s a very important and interesting topic, UW physics has not yet made much of a splash in that area- until now. We caught up to graduate student Lalitasri Nandivada (Urja) to talk about how she ended up working in that area.
Urja had lots of exposure to science as a kid growing up in the Bolton area. Both her Aunt and Uncle were scientists (and in fact they met in graduate school) so the idea of being a scientist was something she recognized very early on. She recalls having an outstanding and encouraging physics teacher (shout out to Dave Allan of Humberview Secondary School Ontario). Thankfully, between Urja’s very supportive family, physics role models, and excellent high school mentors, Urja never thought a career in science was out of reach. Her only real memory of being discouraged came from watching television programs in grade 6 or so where the main characters, popular girls, would comment that math and science were too hard for them.
During her school years, Urja was always aware of UW, mainly through the outreach program of chemistry. In fact those outreach visits were intriguing enough that Urja decided to come to UW and enrol in the Materials and Nanoscience program. She always loved the hands on aspect of experiments, and that program certainly had a big emphasis on experiments. But Urja did not like organic chemistry and so somewhere between 1B and 2A semesters, she decided to switch into physics. In a later conversation Urja acknowledges that probably she was destined to go into physics from the beginning. Long ago, Urja’s father told her why they called her “Urja”. Urja is the Hindi word for energy. Urja’s parents had decided that if their baby was born a girl, she would be named after energy, and if the baby was born a boy, he would be named after momentum.
While in second year, Urja was faced with what many would have viewed as an unsurmountable challenge. In May 1 of her second year she noticed a pins and needles feeling in her legs that refused to go away. This persisted and worsened, and by July/August she found herself unable even to walk! She had been having similar, but not as severe, symptoms on and off since she was 13, but this was worse- much worse. Perhaps the only benefit to this terrifying ordeal was that it finally led to a proper diagnoses (after 7 years of intermittent problems and countless visits to doctors). Urja was diagnosed with MS. Not one to be deterred by even such a frightening diagnosis, Urja was determined to continue. Urja underwent 2 weeks of continuous treatment at St. Michael's Hospital, overseen by their MS Clinic and managed to regain some of her abilities. Even now she is continuing her rehabilitation and having to re-learn playing the piano. One thing the diagnosis did was to change her outlook- maybe even in a helpful way. Used to always having to plan things and dreading the unknown or uncertainty, the uncertainty that came with the diagnosis of MS forced her to adjust her thinking.
Urja muses,
I used to have to plan things all the time, but now things are more often than not put together with duct tape and peanut butter
Urja’s interest in experiential learning and outreach really kicked into gear during a work study term in spring 2020 (the first fully online term due to Covid) where she worked with Meg Ward (now lecturer) in the department of Physics and Astronomy. The idea was to develop laboratory exercises for students which were more aligned with how students actually learn things rather than simply following a traditional approach. This project really resonated with Urja and she wanted to continue work along this line. This led to her doing an undergraduate research project (Phys437 for those who remember) developing optics/laser labs with the same basic principles supervised by Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland. Urja was interested in taking the next step and going to graduate school, and was excited to learn that she would be able to continue this projects of developing new laboratory approaches for undergrads as a graduate project in Physics education. As far as we know, this is the first time a UW graduate student has undertaken research with a faculty member with the topic of physics education.
Urja's interest and ability in undergraduate teaching showed up before she ever entered graduate school. As an undergraduate student in Physics, Urja was the recipient of the 2022 Amit and Meena Chakma award for exceptional teaching by a student. A particularly important comment on the announcement of the award is that
Urja makes the classroom (or lab) environment feel welcoming, inclusive and comfortable for students to learn new concepts.
This work has also attracted other attention. In 2022, Urja was also recognized as a winner of the Optica Women Scholar’s award for her work “encouraging people to pursue education in optical physics”.
We asked Urja if she had any advice for students considering going into physics and she offerred the following:
Stay patient with yourself. Physics can be fun as well as difficult, and it's not instant gratification. You don't have to know what you want to do.
One thing is for sure. Nothing will stand in her way as she uses her “energy” to provide new innovations in optical physics training. We look forward to continue to celebrate her accomplishments.
