Kalen Stefanick, 2025 Center for History of Physics and Niels Bohr Library & Archives Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Simpson College
Hi, my name is Kalen Stefanick (they/them or he/him). I will graduate from Simpson College in December 2025 with majors in Physics and English and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. I am especially interested in the intersection between the sciences and humanities and hope to pursue a career in nonfiction publishing or science communication.I have been highly involved in clubs and activities at Simpson over the years, serving as President of both PRIDE and Physics Club, playing in the band and orchestra, and working as a Writing Center Consultant. In my free time, I love to write poetry, read, explore nature, pet cats, listen to music, and engage in political activism.I’m originally from Minnesota and have only ever lived in suburbs of the Midwest, so I’m eager to explore everything that Washington, D.C has to offer and to join the 2025 SPS intern cohort this summer!

Internship

Host: AIP Center for History of Physics/Niels Bohr Library & Archives Intern

Internship Blog

Week 1: Prelude and Fugue

Prelude
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison

Hello, world! My name is Kalen, and if you’ve read my bio, you know that I’m majoring in English and Physics and minoring in Women’s and Gender Studies.

I attend Simpson College, which is a small liberal arts school about fifteen minutes south of Des Moines and around four hours away from my hometown of Rosemount, Minnesota. The Physics Department at Simpson is very small—for about three and a half years of my time there, we’ve only had one Physics professor (albeit he’s amazing), but in recent years it has grown to two. What Simpson lacks in size, it makes up for in community and close connections with students and staff. I’ve developed close, lasting relationships with my professors—even some faculty I haven’t had a course with for years will still greet me by name as we pass each other on the sidewalk.

For any future intern who’s reading this, just know that you don’t have to get your degree from a huge research university in order to do great things! I’ll admit that I had a bit of imposter syndrome when applying for this internship, but here I am along with the rest of my SPS intern cohort, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Together we make up such an incredible group, and we all bring unique backgrounds and experiences!

I’ve faced a bunch of challenges and setbacks on my educational journey (maybe that’s a story for another blog post), but just being here, it’s so relieving to know that it’s all been worth something. It is especially important for me to live loudly and share my story, because I know I’m not the only transgender or disabled person in Physics.

Fugue, Part I
My journey to Washington, D.C began exactly one week before the internship, when I embarked on a roughly 20 hour road trip halfway across the country with my dad. I’d never been to the Eastern part of the US before, so I decided that it would be more interesting to take a week to drive down and see the sights along the way rather than just fly over the top of them. We drove through a lot of states along the way: Minnesota (of course), Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and just barely over the border of Virginia. My dad and I had packed my car full of stuff for the move, save a few bags that included my dad’s things for the trip.

That first day was the longest day of driving. During the afternoon, we stopped for a hike at Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa to stretch our legs. Aside from the rather large (and loud) group of middle schoolers who seemed to be having a field trip there at the same time we visited, the park was beautiful and tranquil. We got to hike through and explore a couple of cool caves—something that I didn’t even know Iowa had. Then we continued onward, making quick stops for gas, until we reached our hotel for the night on the outskirts of Cincinnati.

One thing you should know about me is that I’m a HUGE fan of animals, so I really wanted to visit the Cincinnati Zoo and its animal celebrities like Fiona and Fritz the hippos, Juno the sloth, Rico the prehensile tailed porcupine, and Daisy the baby bonobo, among others. We spent almost the entire day there. That zoo is really well-done; I’d highly recommend it!

Wednesday we did some hiking in Hocking Hills and also checked out the John Glenn Astronomy Park (JGAP), which has a really impressive observation plaza. Our time was cut a bit short by rain, so we continued onward to the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. It was pretty cool learning about the origins of our cryptid friend and looking through all the fantastic merch in the gift shop. We also visited some waterfalls in Hawk’s Nest State Park and did a quick hike to the Hawk’s Nest Dam to see an incredible overlook of the river and Appalachian Mountains.

On Thursday we had two totally different but equally impressive tours. The first was a Bridge Walk tour, which went along the catwalk underneath the New River Gorge Bridge. We were strapped into harnesses for safety, because at the midpoint of the bridge’s arch we stood 851 feet above the river! The second was the Bunker Tour at the Greenbrier Resort, which led us through a Cold-War-era bunker built right into the hotel by the US Government to house all of the members of Congress and their families in the case of nuclear fallout. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the bunker, but it was quite a fascinating experience if you’re interested in history! Not to mention, the grounds of the Greenbrier are absolutely stunning. My dad and I spent some time walking around after our tour, and it’s kind of crazy how many amenities and activities they have at the resort (a whole tennis stadium?!) Our lodging for the night was on a cute little farm just inside the National Radio Quiet Zone, where we were greeted by very friendly farm kitties.

On Friday we got to go on a tour of the Green Bank Observatory, which houses a number of giant radio astronomy telescopes. We also spent some time looking through the exhibits at the Green Bank Science Center, which, in my opinion, are a perfect example of the ideal general audience science communication. Both my dad (who has little physics knowledge) and I (who almost has a B.A. in physics) were both able to walk away having learned something. I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about radio astronomy before the tour, but as a casual hobby astronomer, I was very intrigued!

Finally, on Friday night we arrived in Washington, D.C. Of course, one of the first things we had to do was go to the zoo to see the pandas (they’re the only zoo left in the US that has them!), so on Saturday morning we headed off to the Smithsonian National Zoo. We arrived at the outdoor panda exhibit around 8:30, which just so happened to be the perfect time to see them active! Bao Li was rolling around, climbing trees, and getting himself into precarious places on the thinnest branches he could reach. Qing Bao was much more calm, mainly just munching on bamboo and bumbling around, but they were both quite adorable! As a fun little bonus, I learned from the exhibit signage that I share a birthday with Qing Bao. The rest of the zoo was also pretty awesome, but my day was made with the pandas. I did also see both an Alaska and a Hawaii license plate in the parking lot, which is another thing you don’t see every day.

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to getting me moved in and settled in my apartment, which is in Shenkman Hall on the George Washington University campus. Sunday was my official move-in day, and I was super excited!

Fugue, Part II
I thought I knew what the city was like before I came to D.C, but boy, was I wrong. Minneapolis and St. Paul might have some funky one-ways and aggressive drivers, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like the chaos and confusion of driving in Washington, D.C. Suddenly, I understand why so many people here rely on public transportation. I mean, the Twin Cities has the light rail, but it’s not nearly as extensive as the D.C Metro, and it’s all still above-ground. One of the many culture shocks of the transition to D.C was the realization that half the city is located underground. Most of the public transit, the parking garages, and even some of the stores are below your feet on street level. My dad and I went to Target to pick up some groceries and a few other miscellaneous items, and having the parking lot with the cart returns in an underground ramp seemed absurd to me. I’m used to the Midwest, where superstores have no problem finding the real estate for sprawling lots that go as far as the eye can see. There’s no room for any wasted space here.

After unloading everything into my new apartment, it was time for my dad and I to say our goodbyes. I dropped him off at his hotel by the airport, where he would fly home the next morning. Monday was Memorial Day, and being too tired from all the moving to attempt to join the festivities in D.C, I decided to stay inside and finish unpacking.

MJ, my roommate, is super nice, and we have a lot of things in common. They were the NBLA/CHP intern in 2023, so I was happy to be living with someone who knew their way around the area. On Monday evening, MJ and I hosted some of the interns in our apartment to play cards and get to know each other. MJ also baked fresh focaccia, which was delicious!

Tuesday was our orientation at SPS, so I got up bright and early to get ready. I headed down to the lobby with MJ to meet the rest of the interns and ride the Metro together. We were the first ones to arrive, but after a few minutes most of the intern crew had gathered there. Nervous, but excited, we all followed the lead of Maia, Jenna, and MJ to the Foggy Bottom Metro station. I was glad to have people with Metro experience alongside me for my first ride. To me, the hustle and bustle of the morning commute was all a bit of a blur, but with their guidance we all made it to the ACP D.C office with plenty of time to spare.

We were greeted by a warm reception of SPS staff, a delicious breakfast spread, and drawstring bags full of SPS swag waiting for us at our seats (I personally loved the spherical cow plushie). We got lots of presentations throughout the day by Mikayla, Kayla, Alejandro, and various other SPS/APS staff, welcoming us to the team and giving us information to help us succeed in our internship. It was really cool that the original creator of the SPS internship program, Jack, was also there. I was pleasantly surprised to see that even the CEO of APS took time out of his busy schedule to personally greet us. If there’s one thing I got from the first day, it’s that a lot of people were really excited for our arrival, and we’ll have no shortage of folks to turn to if we need help at any point along the way. That was a really reassuring feeling.

Of course, it was also really interesting to get to know all of the other interns and see where each of them was coming from. We did the classic spaghetti and marshmallow tower challenge as an icebreaker activity. I may be a physicist but I’m no engineer, so I was elated to be part of the winning team with JJ, Maia, and Zhane! I’ve never won one of those challenges before, so I’m genuinely really proud of that accomplishment (don’t judge me, lol).

The afternoon involved some workshops on networking and improving our elevator speech. Lunch was also provided, and we were able to put our networking skills to the test with some of the other APS staff members who joined us. After orientation, I also had a short meeting with Anna, one of my mentors, to go over some of the details of my specific internship placement. I headed back to Shenkman, and having successfully navigated the Metro by myself, proceeded to take a fat nap. It was a long day, jam-packed with lots of information, but I was also really excited by all the possibilities the summer had to offer.

After all the excitement of orientation, I was glad to have some time to just chill on Wednesday before my work at NBLA started. Thursday was my first day out at the Maryland office, so I got to see the Niels Bohr Library and Archives in person for the first time. I met the NBLA staff and then got a reference orientation from them and learned how to navigate their expansive catalog for my research. My favorite part of the day, though, was touring the library and archive with my mentors, Corinne Mona and Anna Doel. I got to go behind the scenes and see things most regular library patrons don’t get to experience, such as the room full of rare books, with a raised floor and chilled temperature to ensure their safekeeping, and another room full of archival boxes. I checked out some books to begin my research before heading home for the day.

On Friday, I worked on my research from the comfort of my Shenkman apartment. That evening was the Trimble lecture, where Harvard professor, filmmaker, and co-founder of the Black Hole Initiative, Peter Galison, presented a fascinating talk on the history and philosophy of black holes. I was enamored by the way he told the story of the Black Hole Initiative’s quest to image the black hole in M87, as well as by the extensive thought process that went into eliminating confirmation bias and producing the final picture to publish in the press. The other thing that really interested me about his talk was the inherently multidisciplinary nature of his work, and how he seemed to mesh the humanities and sciences in such a seamless fashion.

After the lecture was over, all of the interns except for Maia (who wasn’t feeling well) went to Tonic to celebrate our first week together. I got to try some of their famous tater tots, which were quite tasty. I was also quite pleased to see that their menu featured a selection of “prohibition era drinks,” since I’m not really a huge fan of alcohol—I ordered one called the Piña Mint Spritz and it was delightful! Some people in our group wanted to sing karaoke, so we headed upstairs to the lounge to watch them perform. Several more interns also joined in after them, but I had fun just watching and listening. We stayed until karaoke ended at 10pm, and then headed back to the dorms together.

One important lesson that I learned Friday evening was to always bring an umbrella. I don’t know if it’s always this rainy in D.C, or if this week was a weather anomaly, but almost every day it’s rained or drizzled at some point. Well, as I was getting ready for the Trimble lecture, I did think about bringing an umbrella… but when I glanced out the window, the sky didn’t give me rain vibes. I shrugged it off and didn’t even think to check my trusty weather app. That was probably my first mistake. Traveling to the ACP D.C office for the lecture was fine, but it was afterwards that the weather became an issue. As the intern crew decided to embark to Tonic, we quickly realized that it was absolutely pouring rain outside. About half of us had umbrellas, so there was some sharing going on.

MJ just so happened to have a sheet pan, which they had grabbed from the box of free kitchen supplies for the interns at the office, and jokingly offered it up for someone to use as a makeshift umbrella. There were no takers. As we got outside, though, the rain started coming down in sheets (no pun intended) and it became very clear that anybody without some kind of rain covering was going to be soaked to the bone by the time we arrived. I rethought my decision and decided that, screw it, I was going to use the sheet pan… I mean, I knew it’d look silly, but it’d be better than nothing, right? I will say, the lips around the edge of the pan kept filling with water and spilling it down onto my arms as I walked, but other than that, the sheet pan wasn’t half bad as an umbrella. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the photographic evidence, so here it is for pure reader enjoyment purposes.

On Saturday, I decided to go on a solo walk to the National Mall in order to see the sights, get some exercise, and find a nice spot to relax, read, and rejuvenate myself after a long past couple of weeks. I ended up going to the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Washington Monument, the German-American Friendship Garden, and the White House (as close as I could get with all the security, anyway). It was impressive during the day, but during the evening hours was when the monuments really started to shine. The way that they were lit up against the contrast of the dark night sky was beautiful, and I took way too many pictures.

On Sunday, I mainly just spent the day catching up on sleep and meal-prepping for the upcoming week. I cooked a big pot of rice hotdish, which brought a nice taste of home to the still relatively new and unfamiliar city. If there’s one thing I hope for throughout the duration of this internship, it’s that I’ll find more of my place in D.C and get to explore some of my options for the future.