Physics Student Finds Herself and Her Passion

Rosalie Williams at the Pride Center and evaluating X-ray binary data. — Rosalie Williams at the Pride Center (left, center) and evaluating X-ray binary research data (right).

Third year physics student Rosalie Williams was raised in a small town in Northern California. Growing up, she wasn’t able to visit a planetarium or telescope but always had an interest in astronomy. Being an avid sci-fi fan helped keep that interest alive and one of her favorite characters is Cisco from the Flash TV series.

Though her parents hadn’t completed their college degrees, they always told her that she was destined for college. Williams was a good student in high school and recalls having a cool physics teacher who made it really interesting. “I was a straight A student until I got here,” she said.

Williams confides that taking AP courses in high school meant she was starting with more challenging coursework at CPP. College physics required a lot more calculus and she found that all courses required more work outside of the classroom. She doubted herself until finding people in her major who had the same experience in adjusting to college work and the varying methods and expectations of different professors.

Williams faced financial challenges too. In Spring 2022 she came out as trans to her parents. They stopped providing financial support. Williams knew she was trans in high school and in her first year at CPP she lived in Gender-Inclusive Housing. “I felt I could be who I am once I was here and away from home,” she said.

She found friends and support at CPP and spent a lot of time at the Pride Center. Williams now works there and is on the executive board of the campus club oSTEM.

Lack of financial support could’ve meant the end of Williams’ college career. Fortunately, she found financial support in the form of scholarships, first the Mary Mogge scholarship, and more recently the TEAM-UP Together (TU-T) scholarship. Mary Mogge is a Dean’s Circle member, former physics chair and faculty emerita. TU-T is a new $10,000 scholarship administered by the Society of Physics Students. It supports their goal of doubling the number of Black bachelor’s degree earners in physics and astronomy by 2030.

Williams’ scholarship applications caught the eye of Associate Professor Breanna Binder who asked her to join her research group studying X-ray binary stars. They analyze data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

“I have undergrads work with a large amount of data that requires a step-by-step process which is very time consuming. It takes weeks,” Binder said. “Rosalie completed the task in one week. When I asked how, she told me she had written her own python code to automate and simplify the tasks. I knew then that I was dealing with an exceptional student.”

Williams is studying nearby X-ray binaries that are 15-30 million light years away. They’re looking at environmental factors like stellar mass, metallicity, and other factors that might affect the number of X-ray binaries in a galaxy.

In addition to working on a paper with Binder, Williams plans to present a talk at the American Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans in January 2024. Her ultimate goal is to attain a Ph.D. and continue astrophysics research.

Williams said, “Being able to do the research has really solidified how much I love astronomy. I’d be sad doing anything else. This is really what I want to do and I should do it.”

There are many scholarships available to support CPP science students. The application cycle runs October 1 through March 2. Please visit the scholarship webpage for more information.