MJ Keller, 2023 AIP Center for History of Physics/Neils Bohr Library & Archives Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: University of Rochester

I am an incoming junior at the University of Rochester, pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Physics and Astronomy and a Minor in Music. Originally, I’m from Tampa Bay, Florida, and I moved north to upstate New York specifically to pursue astrophysics. Now, I conduct research with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument studying galactic rotation curves, and I work in the Physics, Optics, and Astronomy Library at my university. I’ve always had a vested interest in information accessibility, from my work at a children’s library to my work now in the POA, and I cannot wait to put my love of physics history and literature towards a good cause doing outreach.

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Project

Abstract

The Niels Bohr Library and Archives is host to physical and digital resources from the world’s history of achievements in physics, optics, mathematics, astronomy, and related fields, and the Center for History of Physics offers connections to the physics community at large through outreach and writing. Through the lens of the development of atomic theory--one of the greatest, most unifying theories developed in modern history--this talk will overview work completed this summer. Methods covered range from Wikipedia editing to curriculum creation to non-fiction article writing, with their topics presented along with developments and discoveries in atomic theory that were underway at the same time.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: Dewey Decimal 000-099 “Generalities”

If there’s one thing I’m glad I packed before coming to Washington, D.C., it’s my sneakers.

Seriously.

Though the city is full of things to try and do, I’m first and foremost here for physics—the rest of it comes after. After moving in the first week of working 9 to 5 was a whirlwind of computer setup, Teams meetings, and spreadsheet-making as the folks at the Niels Bohr Library and Archives, the place I’ll be calling work-home for the next ten weeks, prepared for the first SPS event of the summer: our Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon.

The Edit-a-Thon is this coming Thursday, and I’ve been spending all week simultaneously getting to know my coworkers (and the names of their cats) and sifting through a gargantuan list of underrepresented people in the field of physics. It sounds tedious to the library-untrained, but for me? Sitting at a wooden table, staring out at the forest around the American Center of Physics (where NBLA is housed), and sorting information surrounded by books is something akin to a paradise I get to work from twice a week.

After work each day is when the rest of DC comes crashing in to meet us. The metro commute home is the best place for overhearing conversations you’re not expecting, and changing shoes into my trusty sneakers to head back out feels like shifting into second gear.

The highlights? Food, drinks, and meerkats.

Friday started off strong For Five Coffee Roaster’s cappuccino with Tiffany, and finished even stronger with Union Market’s food stalls, where after a full lap around the market stricken with indecision I settled on a Persian-themed bowl from Immigrant Food.

Saturday continued the feast with Rose Ave. Bakery’s garlicky scallion bun and a black-sesame filled donut that... wow. Let’s just say I’m glad the bakery isn’t near the dorm, or I’d never leave! It’s a convenient ten-minute walk from the gates of the National Zoo, where we saw everything from sea lions and sand cats to elephants and pandas, who all seemed determined to sleep facing away from our cameras . Luckily, the zoo’s animal statues are wide awake, and Emily and I snapped pictures with those, instead (see picture). Our collective highlight was the baby meerkats (see picture), who toddled unsteadily on skinny legs and plopped down to sit as the rest of the mob watched. Though they recently welcomed a new baby gorilla, the ape house was too packed to get in—I guess we’ll have to go back!

All in all, I’m exhausted, my feet hurt, and my pedometer app can’t figure out why I’m all of a sudden clearing ten thousand steps a day easily. Spoiler alert: I’m not stopping any time soon. But it’s been an incredible week, and I can’t wait for the next one—especially now that I know my way around the metro!

Week 2: Dewey Decimal 100-199 “Philosophy”

I’ve heard it said (mostly by philosophy majors) that philosophy is the study of knowledge. I’d like to counter that. Successfully editing Wikipedia is the true study of knowledge.

Or, at least, that’s how it seemed this week.

The culmination of my time so far came on Thursday, when NBLA hosted the SPS Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for AIP staff and SPS interns. Over a dozen people turned out to the hybrid event, between the Zoom call managed by Audrey and the in-person event in ACP’s conference room (see gallery) managed by Corinne, Chip, and yours truly.

If you’re reading this blog and wondering if it’s worth it to learn how to edit Wikipedia, let this be your sign. After a half hour training that covered the basics such as how to add information, how to add links between pages on Wikipedia--important firstly for Wikipedia Races, and secondly for connecting between related people, places, and topics--and how to add images and oral histories from AIP’s Digital Collections, we were ready to edit. Armed with donuts, coffee, and laptops, we dove in. Over the span of the event, we added 50 references and nearly 4,000 words to the pages of 30 underrepresented physicists and astronomers, and no one’s stopping there.

For me, this was a hugely successful event. Not only was it the first “big” thing I did as an intern, but having most of the other SPS interns show up to learn how to edit and support felt like I was a part of something a little bit bigger than I was expecting. Getting to help friends work with copyright and explaining how to add references to increase Wikipedia’s verifiability was important for improving the reliability of the world’s largest online encyclopedia, but it was also important for me, personally, as a chance to grow as a public speaker, researcher, and a part of the 2023 SPS interns.

Thursday’s Edit-a-Thon wasn’t the end of Week 2’s quest for more knowledge. Emily and I decided to have a museum-themed “double feature”... but not in the traditional manner. We paired the Smithsonian’s American History Museum with Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian for a morning full of seeing new things and an evening full of seeing those same things in a movie.

The American History Museum is three stories of pretty much all of the notable topics from America’s history, hitting entertainment (with the original Kermit the Frog), past Presidents, and, of course, food (see gallery below for Julia Child’s real kitchen)! Emily and I, joined by Daniil, spent three hours navigating the museum and absorbing more in one go than I thought was humanly possible. Around lunchtime, Emily and I tapped out, leaving Daniil to keep filling his head with information.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is one of those movies that gets better every time you watch it. This time, it got better because we could point at Kahmunrah wearing Muhammad Ali’s robe and go, “WE SAW THAT!” Next week, we’ll tackle another museum, see more things that made it to the silver screen, and I’ll learn exactly how to write a teaching guide for NBLA. Until then!

Week 3: Dewey Decimal 300-399 “Social Science”

“Working from home” is a bit of a misnomer, if my experiences are correct.

It tends to be more along the lines of “working from a coffeeshop” followed by “working from a different coffeeshop down the street,” with a very good chance of “working from another coffeeshop” tomorrow. Monday started the week off strong, as Tiffany, Brynn, and I worked and studied from two coffeeshops in the same day. I spent most of this week researching and writing my first Teaching Guide, which is a one-lesson curriculum that teaches students about a topic that is less frequently covered in standard curricula.

I chose to focus my first teaching guide on meteorological forecasting through the lens of Charles E. Anderson, a Tuskegee Airman and noted atmospheric scientist from the mid-20th century. This was a shockingly smooth segue from the activities of last weekend, where Emily and I watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, in which the Tuskegee Airmen feature prominently. The week flew by, drafting lesson plans and learning new things about meteorology at the height of World War II.

Thursday night (after another coffeeshop work session) we met with the SPS Executive Committee at Present Company Public House, my first “real” networking event and a great evening of meeting people from all different facets of the physics community. I loved hearing about the dozens of ways everyone involved themselves in the field, and got a few ideas about new things I might want to try!

Friday was spent trying to finalize my writings about Charles Anderson, and realizing I still have a few things I need to add—creating a PowerPoint presentation to go along with my lesson plan and handout will come.

Saturday was the highlight of my week, as we travelled to the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center for a fantastic concert (that was a second layer of cool to a music history nerd). We heard two intricate modern pieces, and what are being hailed as the “definitive” versions of George Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody and Rhapsody in Blue, restored to the original scoring by University of Michigan researchers. To me, there’s nothing like hearing music the way it was intended to be—did you know Rhapsody in Blue originally had parts for three saxophones and a banjo? I certainly didn’t.

Our weekend isn’t over yet, but tomorrow’s intern potluck will be a part of next week’s blog.

Week 4: Dewey Decimal 400-499 “Languages”

This week started Italian.

Monday afternoon, the interns came together for an Italian-themed potluck dinner, complete with tiramisu for dessert and more garlic bread than I thought we could reasonably eat. We divided up who would bring what and gathered in Clay and Colin’s dorm to partake in the feast. It was a great opportunity to get to slow down together and just be, instead of always running to the next place (or to catch the next Metro train).

Tuesday flipped to English—British English. The work day was spent working to complete the written components of my Teaching Guide on Charles E. Anderson, adding in as much biographical information as I could find with help from my mentor, Corinne. She taught me the wonders of Find-a-Grave.com, which I’d only used once before, and I got tons more detail to add to my piece.

That night, Janessa, Ruthie, Jenna, Julia, and I got together to watch the Netflix series Heartstopper, based on the graphic novels of the same name by Alice Oseman that follow a love story at an all-boys British school. We ate cookies and sang along to the soundtrack for the first three episodes, before planning to get back together and finish the series.

Wednesday I left the planet for a night in Klingon, as I got together with friends from my university to watch a few episodes of Star Trek. It’s important to remind myself that just because I’m immersed in my internship, I still have great friends back at my other homes—though I miss them like crazy, now.

On Thursday, we met Nobel Prize winner John Mather to hear a talk from him at ACP, where we enjoyed lunch with members of the AIP Foundation (including Dr. Mather, and yes, I’m still starstruck). That day was Greek twofold, with falafel gyros for lunch and a reminder that so much of physics is, still, all Greek to me, even when explained as well as Dr. Mather explained it.

Friday I finally finished my Teaching Guide, complete with student handout, sky-themed PowerPoint, and instructions for students to create their own weather maps. It’s not published on AIP’s site yet, but I can’t wait to see how it looks published.

Yesterday, Saturday, was the highlight of my week, as we got to spend four hours at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building for Astronomy on the Mall. It wrapped the week up in my favorite language—space nerdery. All in all, we gave away 21 pounds of candy, hundreds of stickers, and taught kids, teenagers, and adults alike some cool trivia. Did you know Jupiter is up to ninety-five confirmed moons? I didn’t, until I wrote the trivia question and found out just how out-of-date my knowledge was.

With Astronomy on the Mall and my first Teaching Guide in the past, I feel like I’m leaving the first phase of this internship—outreach, learning, and just exploring the resources I can access—and entering the second, where I’m both becoming more knowledgeable at what I’m doing and starting to think about the end of the summer. It’s coming too quickly, but that just gives me all the more reason to seize every opportunity that crosses my path while I’m here. Until next week!

Week 5: Dewey Decimal 500-599 “Science”

This is, perhaps, the most fittingly-titled blog post so far.

When I started using Dewey Decimal classes to title my blogs, I didn’t expect them to fit what happened each week so well. In fact, I was almost apprehensive; my home Physics, Optics, and Astronomy Library at the University of Rochester uses the Library of Congress class system, and the Niels Bohr Library uses its own specialized system. There was a moment in which I debated using one of those two systems instead.

As you’ve seen by now, I decided to stick with the tried-and-true Dewey Decimal system. And this week certainly had the most science of all of them.

My mentor at NBLA, Corinne, was out for the week, leaving me largely to my own devices as I worked on the library blog’s August Photos of the Month post. I spent the majority of my working hours delving into the lives and work of physicists and other scientists who passed through Washington, D.C. during their careers, tracking them through photos in our digital archives. People from Otto Stern, namesake of the Stern-Gerlach experiment (which demonstrated that angular momentum is quantized in quantum mechanics), to members of the Manhattan Project all passed through the U.S. capital, and many have been caught on film.

Largely, this work entailed recognizing names from classes I’ve taken, then frantic Googling until I remembered why I recognized the names, then trying to remember what I learned about them in class. (I’m looking at you, Stern.) In addition to playing Who’s Who of Physics for my work for NBLA, I finished my research for an article proposal for Physics Today; here’s hoping I hear from them soon!

The science-filled week capped off with a trip to the Air and Space Museum, where Jenna, Ruthie, and I nerded out about anything and everything from a cutaway of a Cray supercomputer (a precursor to a supercomputer I conduct research on) to the wheels of the Curiosity rover, which imprint “JPL” (the lab it was constructed at) in the surface of the dust as it rolls.

Though it’s blog writing time already, the weekend has scarcely begun--we have Monday and Tuesday off for Fourth of July! Tune into next week’s blog for our Independence Day festivities.

Week 6: Dewey Decimal 600-699 “Technology”

Sometimes, irony comes at unexpected times.

It’s become a trend, for me, for my blog titles (which follow the Dewey decimal system, with each week matching a span of numbers) to inadvertently fit the happenings of that week. So when this Monday rolled around, I found myself checking my calendar to see what could possibly be technological about it.

Monday we went to the Nationals vs. Reds game and watched the Reds just narrowly beat the Nats. Nationals Stadium is the first baseball field I’ve ever been to that sold arepas and fried yucca, which has set a new standard for ballpark food for me (sorry, hot dogs, you’ve been one-upped). It was a ton of fun getting to hang out with the other interns to watch the game, and it was my first in-person game since the MLB changed the rules for this season!

Tuesday I got to work on my next teaching guide, covering atomic theory from antiquity until now. It’s taken me all week to get to the 1800s, as I waded through Ancient Greek theories about how everything was made up. Thanks, Democritus, for your truly wild ideas, and especially for the ones that turned out to be (mostly) correct.

Wednesday was one of the highlights of my week, as I travelled to Arlington to have some fantastic pizza from Stellina Pizzeria before heading to the Signature Theatre. There, I attended the tale of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. The show was as amazing--and chilling--as always, and has left me humming the soundtrack even as I write this blog. It’s a little strange to explain the plot of the musical, but suffice it to say you’ll never look at meat pies the same way once you’ve seen it.

Thursday morning, irony came for me. At 12:02 AM, my phone shut off and wouldn’t turn back on. The weekend before, it had gotten rained on, and I’d assumed there was no damage except for to the cameras. I was wrong.

Technology.

Thursday didn’t leave much time to stress about it, though, as Jenna gave a fantastic seminar on science misinformation and discussion to all of the interns at ACP. Attending her seminar meant another day of working from my beloved NBL reading room before heading home, still working through the 1800s’ approach to atoms. That night, Ruthie, Tiffany, and I headed out for another highlight of my week: Kura, where we ate sushi delivered by conveyor belt and had drinks delivered by the cutest singing robot ever. Unfortunately, you’ll have to check out their blogs for pictures, as my phone was chilling in a bag of rice by this time, never to wake up again.

Friday was full of end-of-week meetings, covering everything from the Oppenheimer movie and Niels Bohr in media to places to get KBBQ in the DMV. Then, I went to the Apple store to replace my dead phone (shout-out to Ainissa S.!), and irony no longer had its claws in me.

Last night, Emily and I started planning a surprise for some of the other interns--I’ll keep that a secret for now.

Until next week, when hopefully I’ll be up to date on all of the developments of atomic theory in history!

Week 7: Dewey Decimal 700-799 “Arts and Recreation”

The highlight of week 7 happened Sunday night. But first, work and flowers.

My work this week was almost entirely writing-based, as I collated research that I’ve done on the history of atomic theory into a new teaching guide. All in all, that entailed a lot of double-checking sources and fiddling with the formatting on Microsoft Word before I get to dive into the meat of my teaching guide next week.

Saturday morning, two of my friends from the University of Rochester visited DC for lunch and a trip to the United States Botanic Garden. It was crazy-hot outside and although the temperature wasn’t much better in the greenhouses, the air smelled green from the sheer quantity of plants packed into every square inch.

Personally, my favorite part was the informational placards by each plant, giving their scientific and common names alongside the locations they’re found most commonly in. We spent a few hours wandering the different biomes the gardens had constructed within greenhouses, pointing out plants we liked the colors of (shout-out to the Purple Queen, a groundcover plant that my family and I have in Florida, and yes, it really is that purple) before leaving for some cool-down boba tea.

Then, it was Sunday.

Emily and I spent the last week building a tabletop RPG (similar in structure to Dungeons & Dragons) from scratch, creating a world, background characters, and a gameplay system for our game. It came to fruition around 4:45 last night, as Brynn, Ruthie, Tiffany, Hannah, and Eva gathered around the homemade map to introduce their characters to each other and start on the game’s mission.

I won’t spoil the whole game now, but we have one more session on Wednesday, and I can’t wait to see how everything plays out.

Week 8: Dewey Decimal 200-299 “Religion”

I know, I know. I broke my naming pattern.

This comes after realizing I missed posting my Week 8 blog during week 8, after realizing I skipped the 200s early on in the summer, and after deciding that the 200s--religion--were the most fitting title for this week, anyhow. So it all worked out in the end.

Monday night the interns hit Rosemarino d’Italia for a cabaret open-mic, emcee’d by the person I sat next to when I went to Sweeney Todd at the Signature Theater. Julia and Ruthie were the two of us who signed up to sing, but a few of us took the opportunity to take the mic and sing some songs.

Last week was also the final week I worked in-person at ACP, and I had to say goodbye to my beloved Niels Bohr Library and Archives and the giant bronze bust of Niels Bohr (see pictures). On my final day in the office, we threw a baby shower for one of the other NBLA staff members, the first big event since my second mentor returned from parental leave. It was a lovely party, but bittersweet as it was the last event I’d attend in any of the ACP conference rooms.

Starting on Friday, my mom and aunt came to visit, and to say we saw the sights would be an understatement. The last two pictures are of the Hillwood House, an estate museum that once belonged to Marjorie Post. Post gained her wealth as a pillar of the prepared-foods industry, and everything she owned, lived in, and grew was immaculate. From the French art on the walls to the Russian glass and dishes in display cases, everything on the property shone with beauty and elegance. After spending time at Hillwood we hit the National Zoo one more time for Mei Xiang’s 25th birthday, the natural sequel to a house full of priceless art.

Sunday we visited the Museum of the Bible, a part-archaeological, part-literary muesum dedicated to the history and evolution of the world’s most-sold text. My favorite part (though I forgot to take pictures) was the archaeological section, with real pieces of the scrolls found at Nag Hammadi encased in museum glass.

See why the Religion section felt fitting for this week?

Anyways, it feels both real and surreal that we’re almost through with the internship, and I definitely have a lot of work to finish before presentations.

Week 9: Dewey Decimal 800-899 “Literature”

Did you know interning at a library and archives would involve a lot of reading and writing?

I did. And yet, I feel like I somehow managed to underestimate the sheer amount of reading and writing I’d be doing, as I tackled finishing an article draft for Physics Today and putting together my last teaching guide this week.

The reading in question? Scans of the original publications that were groundbreaking in atomic theory: Ernest Rutherford’s gold foil experiment, Millikan’s oil drop experiment, Niels Bohr’s proposition of the model of the atom, and Henry Moseley’s rearrangement of the periodic table, to name a few. In digging through these journal articles, I found a new appreciation for my field, and especially for the writers who can put their thoughts to paper coherently (something Millikan especially struggled with).

From here, I kept piecing my last teaching guide on atomic theory together; excerpts from the papers found a home in a student handout, and raving about the things I read found a home being explained wildly to Ruthie, my roommate.

Ultimately, though, I got a draft of an article to Physics Today, and my final teaching guide is nearly done.

As for external fun this week, Wednesday kicked off strong with the world premiere of the symphonic staged concert of the musical RENT at the Kennedy Center, and... wow. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to listen to RENT without a full trombone section ever again. Thursday saw the conclusion of LIGHTSPEED, the tabletop role-playing game Emily and I wrote for our intern friends. They were given the goal of stealing a serum before it gets transported to its final location, as it navigates a galaxy on a DC-metro-esque galactic rail system. They bought a ship at a discount from Danny D’Veeto, reunited him with his lost love, and rolled surprisingly well in their daring escape from the facility where the serum was being held. It was a blast to run with everyone, and I can’t wait to tweak the game and play it again sometime!

Tonight, just before I wrote this blog, Ruthie, Tiffany, and I went to Union Market for dinner and oat milk soft serve, and I think I’m going to be dreaming about black sesame for the next month.

Here’s to Week 10, finishing all my work, and writing my presentation!

Week 10: Dewey Decimal 900-999 “History and Geography”

I suppose, for the last week’s blog, that History is—again, as it’s seemed to be all summer—a fitting categorization. Who would have thought that an organizational system designed for books would slot into my summer so neatly?

Working with AIP’s Center for History of Physics and Niels Bohr Library and Archives filled my summer with historical physics in a way I’d never experienced before, and I count myself exceptionally lucky to get

I’m writing this blog from my home near Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, some 900 miles displaced from the dorms at GW. Our final presentations finished last week, and we’ve been moved out and scattered back to the winds for about a week now. We were told to write the last blog when we were home and settled (when the internship was “over”), and for me, I still don’t quite feel like it’s all over.

Thanks to my mentors at CHP and NBLA, I have writing pieces left to edit and create, still. In a comforting way, it’s staving off the transition out of AIP just a little longer, and letting me keep doing the work that I’ve enjoyed so much all summer. Though I’ll miss my intern cohort, the folks at CHP/NBLA, and much of D.C., I think it’s better to focus on just a few of the things I learned.

1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Especially when you’re doing something new, the only way to learn how to do it right is to ask for help from someone who’s done it before.

2. Think outside the box. Even if it’s a box you made up for yourself, if you can dream it, you can do it. I tackled a lot more work than I was expecting to be able to, in no small part thanks to my mentors’ encouragement and help, but in another not-so-small part thanks to my own commitment to doing new things.

3. Try new things. This sounds like a cliché, and it honestly is, but so much of my time in D.C. was built around breaking out of routine. It’s something that’s going to stick with me back in Florida and when I return to Rochester this fall—sometimes, the best thing you can do is get out there and see what’s in the world.

This has been an unforgettable summer, and I’m hugely grateful to AIP, SPS, and all of the other interns and people that supported this summer being what it was. Find my work in CHP’s Teaching Guides and in NBLA’s blog, Ex Libris Universum—some already posting, and some still to come!