Chris+Seck+Bio

Since I can remember, math and science enthralled me; I watched more shows on Discovery or National Geographic than cartoons. Taking AP calculus, chemistry, and physics classes in high school merged my two lifelong interests and reinforced my fascination. Those experiences pushed me into formally pursuing physics at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in California. After my freshman year, I was approached by one of my professors inquiring if I wanted to work in his lab attaching short strands of DNA to the surface of microspheres to assemble them into structures with the eventual goal of growing photonic band-gap crystals. When I first observed one of these structures melt under a microscope, I was hooked on the project and on experimental physics.

Soon after, I began a year-long series of lab classes focused on repeating many historic physics experiments, including measuring several fundamental constants such as the electron charge and Planck’s constant. Seeing how powerful relatively-simple, tabletop experiments could be in probing fundamental physics and the nature of the universe made me wonder what else could be discovered or measured in similar ways to benefit all of science and the entire world. It was those lab classes that spurred my research interests into lasers and spectroscopy, and it was those lab experiences that brought me to Brian Odom’s lab at Northwestern.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my work so far has been constructing experiments and building equipment; since our lab is relatively new, many pieces of equipment and apparatuses need to be built. For example, seeing a vacuum chamber or laser progress from scattered pieces to a fully-constructed, operating apparatus used in a working experiment is invigorating.

Outside of the lab, I love the outdoors. Since I was a kid, I played baseball throughout Southern California beyond high school. My family and I would routinely travel to the Colorado River in Arizona during the summer and the Sierra Nevada mountains in California during the winter with occasional trips to further destinations. Since coming to Northwestern, my traveling is mainly motorcycle road trips throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio with occasional trips to Toronto, Canada.