Humberto Gilmer It was an ordinary research group meeting one Thursday morning in June 2012 at the Radiation Physics

department at MD Anderson Cancer Center. As a simple summer intern, most of the topics of discussion were somewhat above my level of understanding; but when one of the professors began to discuss some anomalous results in one of the patient trials a colleague was conducting, I was intrigued. He described a sequence of trials where the patients had experienced skin burning due to the procedure being tested; however, when the doctor accidentally left a piece of tape on the patient, the burning suddenly disappeared. Even to me, the result was a surprising find. And so, I approached the professor, asking if there was anything I could do to assist on this project and learn more. At the time, I was on the verge of completing a project with another member of the same research group and upon hearing of this potential project I seized the chance to learn more and meaningfully contribute. I was coming off my sophomore year as a student at Rice University and knew little of the physics of particle radiation. I was, however, armed with a knowledge of Matlab and a willingness to put in time and effort to understand what I could of this field in the time I had. And it paid off; that spur of the moment request led to the project I worked on for the rest of the summer. As a result, I coded an algorithm to interpret results from a Monte Carlo statistical simulation, produce graphical outputs, and learned more the physics of charged particles. It was, at times, both maddening and immensely satisfying work. Maddening when the physics made no sense or the code refused to work and satisfying when the understanding finally clicked or when the code yielded the expected result and the sense of satisfaction of being able to present to my advisor the work I had completed. I learned much that summer, both about my ability to conduct research and about the variety of subfields in the greater picture of physics. I learned, that although I may not wish pursue radiation physics as it applies to oncology, particle physics is definitely something that draws my interest. I also learned the value of taking the plunge, as it were, of the value of making attempts and trying solutions, although they may not yield the desired result. This summer, I wish to continue that journey. I currently desire to further explore the [high energy/condensed matter/particle physics/gravitational physics] field and the research involved to further diversify my views on the field and better understand what I may wish to study in my future academic career in graduate school and beyond. Given my experiences in first research position this past summer, I feel my interests will become more apparent the more positions in different fields I hold.