2024-25 President's Scholars

Olivia Walsh

Siu Family President's Scholar

Major: Physics

College of Science

Activities: Kellogg Honors College, Physics Research Assistant, President of the Society of Physics Students, Women and Gender Minorities in Physics, and Learning Assistant for the Physics Department

“Learning physics often feels like someone whispering the secrets of the universe to me,” says Olivia. “Once I get through the initial learning curve of a new challenging subject, I get so excited by what I am learning, sometimes because I can directly see how it applies to my everyday life, or, in the case of quantum physics, because of how anti-intuitive it is, and a really cool way to nearly re-train your brain.” Mitigating climate change motivates Olivia to delve deeper into research in renewable energy and climate sensing technologies. She hopes that her inclusivity efforts within the CPP physics department, where she helped
initiate the creation of a Women and Gender Minorities in Physics subgroups of the Society of Physic Students club, convinces more women and underrepresented groups to study physics, which contains one of the smallest fractions of women researchers in a STEM field. Olivia plans to pursue a Ph.D. in  experimental physics with a goal to work as a researcher at one of the National Laboratories.