Harvard Students Win Hertz Foundation Grant to Fund Graduate Studies In Physics

Two Harvard students were among only ten budding scientists nationwide this year to earn a much-coveted graduate fellowship granted by the Hertz Foundation. Each of the ten students was awarded $250,000, “no strings attached,” to pursue graduate studies in engineering and the applied sciences.

Timothy L. Kovachy ’09, and Jeff Thompson, a Harvard graduate student in physics, faced even higher odds than applicants in previous year—the number of fellowships granted this year by the Hertz Foundation was reduced by 50 percent. The winners were selected from 543 other scientists, a pool comparable in size to those of previous years.

“The process for earning the fellowship is quite rigorous,” Kovachy said. “You are expected to not only have done significant research in the sciences, but to have a general knowledge of virtually all scientific subjects.”

To win a Hertz fellowship, candidates are required to submit a detailed application and participate in two rounds of interviews. During the first interview, applicants were asked questions from all areas of physics, chemistry, biology, and statistics. The second round was geared more towards a discussion of what the applicant intended to do with his fellowship.

Kovachy said that he was up to the challenge, having spent his last three summers doing research in physics at Stanford, and experimenting with physical principles on his own. The Winthrop house resident is especially interested in utilizing “atomic interferometers” to measure gravitational forces at the quantum level.

“Essentially, I measure how two atoms fall simultaneously, much like Galileo measured how two balls fell in synchronization from atop the Tower of Pisa,” Kovachy said. If there is some atomic interference—that is, if two atoms of rubidium do not fall simultaneously—then scientists will have to rethink how gravitational forces act on particles generally.

Thompson will also be pursuing research in physics.

—PAUL C. MATHIS