Biography

Hi, I'm Zheni, I am a physics major and in the WISE program at Stony Brook. I am from Stamford Connecticut.

Since I was a child, I have always had a love for science. Some of my of my first "experiments" took place during my visits to Lake Ohrid (located in Albania) for summer vacation. I remember playing along the shore and observing the different types of fish and lizards. I developed numerous methods to catch fish. My most successful one involved putting bread on the rim of a jar and placing it in the water between the rocks. Standing nearby, I would wait until fish filled the jar and then rush over to put a lid on it. Exploring and interacting with this unique natural environment made me curious about how our world works and finding my place in it.

This curiosity and love for science stayed with me during high school and motivated me into become involved with a research class. I worked on a self-designed project, for about two years, titled: Sustainable Enhancement of Plant Growth and Disease Reduction Using Biochar Soil Additives. The project involved me testing different types of a relatively new product called "biochar", which is similar to charcoal, but is made through pyrolysis (burning of biomass under pressure with the absence of oxygen), which allows the carbon components of the material to remain in a solid form, instead of burning off as CO2. For my project, I decided to test the material on not only healthy plants, but also on also plants with specified diseases. My results showed me that different types of biochar had different effects on certain plant diseases. I decided to continue my research further by investigating the chemical components of the biochar, and found that tone of the biochars (specifically the one that did not work as well) had harmful chemicals (PAHs) while the other biochar (the one that worked well) did not have these chemicals. Unable to explain these results right away, I decided to investigate further by talking to the companies that produced each biochar. I was able to find out that the biochar that did work well was made from fallen trees and ther "organic" biomass, while the biochar that did not work as well was made from comercial vegetable biomass, wich may have possible sources of pesticides. Some of the previous research that I read on biochar claimed that: All biochars are made the same, regardless of the biomass used for production. My research was able to counter those claims and provide new and original insight on a relatively new product.

Towards the end of my junior year I finally finished my research and had the pleasure of entering it in numerous science fairs, placing first in my state fair, an international fair (ISWEEEP), and receiving semi-finalist recognition for Intel. Having this experience in high school helped me become more familiar with lab technics and presentation skills. Most importantly, it inspired me to become involved with research at Stony Brook.

I decided to study physics in college because it allowed me to combine my love for science and my skills in math into one major. I have had the chance to visit both NASA stations (in Florida and Texas), where I spent hours in museums and tours learning about how scientists use physics everyday for complicated tasks that once seemed impossible. I learned from these visits that I wanted to conduct work similar to those scientists. During my first visit to the Laser Teaching Center I was impressed with how previous students were able to create such interesting projects using physics. I began to think more in depth about demonstrations that once seemed simple to me (such as the "Pig Mirage") and started to wonder about the mathematics and physics involved in creating them. I was also very impressed by a particular laser setup that a students had created: it involved aiming a laser at multiple positioned mirrors and creating an image onto the wall. The unique thing about this setup was that if one were to apply pressure to the table and lower it slightly, the image appeared more granular. I found out that this has to do with the way the different waves of light created by the lasers interacted with each other. I very excited to work with other students and eventually create my own project that will further my understanding in physics.