Demetra Yancopoulos ’18 visits IRP Students

Utilizing the whiteboard, Demetra immediately engaged our students with a question/answer style conversation to describe the basic mechanics of how greenhouse gases trap heat, and how sea spray and cloud formation can enhance the effect. This led to one of her research projects where she was tasked to track bubble coalescence and popping in a laboratory setting.

One student commented that “I thought it was interesting how she had to work around different problems to identify the bubbles, and it just required a lot of out-of-the-box thinking that was very cool to me.” Another student found it remarkable that “within the topic of the ocean/atmosphere in relation to climate change there are so many specific sub-topics down to literally counting bubbles.” They also found it interesting “to see how simple/practical a research topic can be. Not all studies have to have vast complex premises but can quite simply be counting something. This just goes to show the vast flexibility of science which is so amazing!”

Thank you, Demetra, for taking the time to come to visit our students. We wish you the best of luck in your senior year of college.

All alumni/parents with present or past experiences in scientific research have a standing invitation to back and visit the Independent Research Program. Our future scientists love hearing your stories, and these talks are formative to their careers. If you are interested, please reach out to Dr. Andrew Ying.